Nithari killings: A Critical Analysis

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This Article is Written by Manav Sony from Amity University, Kolkata. The Article talks about the Critical Analysis of the Nithari Killings which shook the entire Nation at once. 

Nithari Killings or Noida Serial Murders was one of the deadliest events which occurred in the years 2005 and 2006. These murders took place in the house of the well-known businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in Nithari, India. The accused Mohinder Singh was taken into conviction in two out of the five cases which were there against him and his servant who used to work for him was convicted in almost ten out of the sixteen cases. Both the accused were awarded death penalty from the court of law.

Talking about the events, firstly in the month of December, 2016, two residents of Nithari were reported that they actually knew the location of the remains of the dead bodies of the children who had gone missing in the previous two years’ time i.e. since 2003. The Municipal Tank which was there near the plot D5 contained the remains of the two children who were missing. The suspects claimed that Surinder Koli, who was the domestic help of that house was also involved in the mystery of the kidnapping and murder of these two innocent children. The residents of that area had contended that when they found a decomposed hand in the tank, they tried to contact the police immediately and the local authorities failed to take concrete action from that time. The anxious parents of the children who were missing for so long went to Nithari with their photographs and finally they got a big lead from the police over there. 

The families of the children were actually blaming the Nithari Police because they woke up really very late and they failed to take prompt action. Their children would have been safe if the police could have taken some stricter action from the really first day itself. Instead of that, the Noida police tried to blame the family members and said that they were providing false information about the missing children i.e. the children were not missing and it was fake. The children were not minors but were adults who left home after having a fight with their parents. Basically, it was portrayed that the police were fully corrupted and thus they were given money by the criminals in order to hide the information regarding the entire case. The same contention was even raised by the residents of D5 because they were facing issues regarding the late investigation procedure. The police were so reluctant during the entire investigation that it was really clear that they were given money. Talking about the instances, one of the residents said that the police were trying to take the credit for discovering the dead bodies of the children, but it was actually the residents who dug them up. The police had also denied getting fifteen bodies and clearly said that the entire report will come through the DNA Test. Then, the police had sealed the entire crime spot and barred the entry of news media around it. The Central Government had given a lot of effort in order to collect all the relevant facts of the case and to catch the crime doers who were actually behind these brutal killings and also to ascertain whether this matter contained any “inter-state ramifications”. But the home ministry was basically interested in finding out the inside magnitude of the entire crime scene and the incidents involved. On 26th and 27th December, the employer of Koli, Mohinder Singh Pandher and Koli were taken into police custody because they were in connection with the kidnapping of “Payal.”  After Koli confessed the entire thing to the police, they went to the crime scene and after that they started to dig the nearby areas and found the bodies of the children. All the bodies were brutally decomposed and not at all in a proper condition. After this, two policemen were immediately suspended because of the fact that they never took any prompt action when they were informed about a larger number of children missing. The angry residents were so angry that they charged into the house of the mastermind of this entire crime and also demanded to remove the tyrannical Government of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Slowly, the situation at Nithari village became really very angry and was out of control. Some angry mob of villagers started fighting with the police and were pelting stones at each other, just outside the residence of the mastermind. The police also arrested Pandher’s maid Maya under suspicion that she hid women inside the house. As more body parts were dug from the areas nearby, hundreds of residents got really scared and they figured out that there was a really big racket going on organ transplant. A doctor who lived close to the residence was under the suspicion of police a few years prior in connection to a kidney racket which was going on at his hospital. Many searches were conducted throughout his properties, and investigators found no such evidence to support any claim of the fact that he was actually involved in the incident. During the search operations, the investigating teams got some erotic literatures and a laptop computer which was connected with a webcam, which suddenly raised questions regarding the international child pornography racket. The police also got some pictures of Pandher with nude children and even foreigners during his international visits four times. It was simply alleged that Pandher used to supply these pictures abroad and he could easily link it to Paedophilia i.e. a type of disease. But it was later found to be untrue and not accurate. As the investigation proceeded, it was found that those nude children were Grandchildren of Pandher. There was no concrete link found relating to child pornography. The story in the end was found to be a media created rumour and nothing else. The accused were brought to the Directorate of Forensic Sciences in Gandhinagar City so as to undergo brain mapping and also polygraph tests so as to know the actual cause of the case on 4th January, 2007 and also the Narco Analysis test five days after these two tests. The police informed the media that both the accused were really very cooperative during the tests and all the tests have been covered successfully without any hassle. Surinder Koli had also confessed regarding his crime once again to the police and thus a clean chit was given to his employer because he was really much unaware of the actions of Koli. Surinder had also revealed about all the deaths which took place through strangulations. He said that before killing them, he raped them and after that he took them to his washroom and cut them into pieces. Pandher was in the end declared as a much-depressed person and a womaniser. The two accused were then taken to the headquarters of CBI in Mumbai Jail on 11th January,2007 night which was one day before the investigation was to be transferred to them. They continued to investigate the entire matter from the scratch and found three more skull and human remains at the crime scene. All the investigators found the drains outside the house and got three skulls, which were of those missing children and their body parts which also included leg, bones and torso. 

Conclusion

In the end, in February, 2011 the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of the culprits. In July, 2014 the President had rejected the mercy petitions filed for them. On 3rd September, the court had issued death penalty against Koli. On the evening of 4th September, Surinder was transferred to Meerut Jail because of the absence of hanging facilities. On October 29th, 2014 the Court bench headed by CJI H.L. Dattu had rejected the death sentence review petition. After so many review petitions, the court had finally given death sentence to them in the 10th conviction in the year 2019. 

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