By IANS
Ghaziabad : A special court here Wednesday charged Moninder Singh Pandher with rape and murder of a young woman even as it questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for exonerating him while probing the killings of at least 20 children and young women in Nithari village.
“Special Judge Rama Jain of the designated CBI court gave directions to charge Pandher with raping and murdering Payal, a 20-year-old woman, at his D-5 Nithari residence in Noida,” said Khalid Mohammed, counsel of the families of the victims.
“Pandher was charged on the basis of the police case diary in which Dinesh Yadav, then circle and investigating officer, had recorded his confessional statements of raping and killing Payal, a girl who was said to be prostitute,” Mohammed added.
Pandher had reportedly told police that Payal was blackmailing her and in order to get rid of her, he along with his servant Surinder Koli had killed her.
On July 2, the court had found suspended official Yadav “prima facie accused” for concealing the case diary and also issued his production warrant.
“After hearing the testimony of Payal’s father Nand Lal who saw the official accepting bribes, the court finds them prima facie accused in the case and issues non-bailable warrant against him,” the judge had said.
It was Payal’s murder that had led to the unravelling of the sex-related butcheries in Nithari village in Noida near Delhi.
The Noida police had registered a missing-person case on Nand Lal’s complaint in October 2006.
Pandher was arrested along with Koli last year after police recovered at least 20 human skulls and body parts stuffed in 57 polythene bags from the sewer behind Pandher’s bungalow in Noida Dec 29.
Pandher and Koli are currently lodged in Ghaziabad’s Dasna jail.
The CBI, which took over the case from Noida Police, had given a clean chit to Pandher after finding no evidence against him in killing of any of the victims.
The CBI had said Koli had allegedly raped and killed 20 children and young women, while Pandher was only charged under the provisions of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.