A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, on 24 July, sentenced businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surender Koli to death in connection with the 2006 Nithari murders.
Special Judge Pawan Kumar Tripathi sentenced the two to death after finding them guilty of rape, murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy over the killing of 20-year-old Pinky Sarkar.
The case, the eighth of the several lodged against the duo, was registered by the CBI on 29 December 2006
The Pinky Sarkar Case
The victim, Pinky Sarkar, worked as a domestic help in Noida Sector 30. She disappeared after she left the house of her employer late on 5 October 2006.
On 29 December 2006, human remains were discovered from drains behind Pandher’s bungalow. Quoting the documents pertaining to the case, the Indian Express said Koli dismembered Sarkar’s body with a knife and threw her head and garments behind the house. An FIR was lodged after Sarkar’s parents identified her clothes in April 2007.
This is the eighth case in the Nithari killings. While Koli was earlier awarded death sentence for six of the 16 cases filed against him, Pandher was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court, but is facing trial in three other cases.
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