In a fifth judgment related to the horrific Nithari serial killings, special judge Shyam Lal on Saturday held the accused, Surinder Koli, guilty of abduction, attempted rape, murder and destruction of evidence in a case related to the killing of a five-year-old girl from the Noida locality.
The court is likely to pronounce the quantum of punishment on Monday. Previously, four Nithari cases were decided at Ghaziabad and Koli was awarded the death penalty in all.
Lal kept the identity of the minor girl confidential. After Saturday’s order, CBI public prosecutor JP Sharma told HT the prosecution would demand capital punishment for Koli as the crime could be well placed “under the category of rarest of rare” cases.
The victim was playing outside Moninder Singh Pandher’s house at D-5, Sector 31 in Noida on June 4, 2005 when she went missing between 5-6pm. Her father, a sweeper, later filed a missing person’s complaint at Sector 20 police station.
After Koli and Pandher were arrested on December 29, 2006, Koli confessed to killing several victims, including the minor girl, and discarding their body parts and belongings in the backyard and inside the front drain near the house.