‘Are we not human, because we are poor?’

As the CBI demanded death sentence for domestic help Surendra Koli convicted in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in Nithari, Koli stood restless. Naziya Alvi reports.

As the CBI on Friday demanded death sentence for domestic help Surendra Koli convicted in the rape and killing of 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in Nithari, Koli stood restless.

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Biting his lower lip and scratching the desk with his nails, Koli murmured, “Hum gareeb hai to insaan nahin hai kya (Are we not human, just because we are poor).”

CBI counsel SP Ahluwalia had claimed that Koli was a rare combination of a person who was a pedophile (has sex with children) and also suffered from necrophilia and that there were no chances of him being reformed and rehabilitated.

Devender Kaur, Pandher’s wife and Koli’s employer, however, said until the issue came to light, she had never, in the five years of his stay at her place, noticed anything suspicious about him.

“In fact, as my husband would leave early in the morning, I lived all alone in the house till late at night, but never noticed him indulging in any kind of suspicious activity. He was an excellent cook and talked to the point,” she said.

But ever since Koli was found involved in the case, Kaur could never face him. “Once a CBI sleuth asked me if I would like to meet him and I refused saying I was scared,” she said.