GHAZIABAD: A CBI court on Thursday held businessman Maninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surender Koli guilty in the rape and murder of 25-year-old housemaid Anjali in 2016. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment in the case on Friday.
This is the ninth of the 16 cases of the macabre Nithari serial killings in 2005 and 2006. While Koli has been convicted in the earlier eight cases and sentenced to death, Pandher was awarded capital punishment only in two of the three cases he has been found guilty by the court.
"CBI judge PK Tiwari convicted Koli in Anjali rape and murder case under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 376 (punishment for rape), 364 (kidnapping or murder in order to murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC," public prosecutor JP Sharma told TOI.
"The court also held Pandher guilty in this case under sections 302 to be read with 120(b), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) to be read with 120(b) and 376 (punishment for rape) to be read with 120(b) of IPC. The sentencing is on Friday," he added.
Anjali, who hailed from West Bengal's Murshidabad district, lived in Nithari village along with her uncle Arun Sarkar and her two sons, and worked as a maid. She went missing on October 12, 2006, following which a missing person's complaint was lodged in Noida's Sector 20 police station.
The CBI took over the Nithari serial killing cases in 2007 and during the course of investigation found Koli used to lure women and minor girls to his employer's D-5 house in Sector 31 Noida. As per CBI, he had lured 19 women whom he raped and murdered, before dismembering their body parts and disposing the same in nearby drains.
On December 30, 2006, when skulls and human remains were found near Pandher's house, Anjali's uncle had identified her clothes which she wore on the day she went missing.
This is the ninth of the 16 cases of the macabre Nithari serial killings in 2005 and 2006. While Koli has been convicted in the earlier eight cases and sentenced to death, Pandher was awarded capital punishment only in two of the three cases he has been found guilty by the court.
"CBI judge PK Tiwari convicted Koli in Anjali rape and murder case under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 376 (punishment for rape), 364 (kidnapping or murder in order to murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC," public prosecutor JP Sharma told TOI.
"The court also held Pandher guilty in this case under sections 302 to be read with 120(b), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) to be read with 120(b) and 376 (punishment for rape) to be read with 120(b) of IPC. The sentencing is on Friday," he added.
Anjali, who hailed from West Bengal's Murshidabad district, lived in Nithari village along with her uncle Arun Sarkar and her two sons, and worked as a maid. She went missing on October 12, 2006, following which a missing person's complaint was lodged in Noida's Sector 20 police station.
The CBI took over the Nithari serial killing cases in 2007 and during the course of investigation found Koli used to lure women and minor girls to his employer's D-5 house in Sector 31 Noida. As per CBI, he had lured 19 women whom he raped and murdered, before dismembering their body parts and disposing the same in nearby drains.
On December 30, 2006, when skulls and human remains were found near Pandher's house, Anjali's uncle had identified her clothes which she wore on the day she went missing.
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