By IANS
Ghaziabad : A special court Monday deferred till May 11 its order on a petition against the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) clean chit to Noida businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in the Nithari serial killings.
The CBI court's judge Rama Jain deferred her order on a petition by Jatin Sarkar, the father of one of the victims 14-year-old Pinki Sarkar.
He has challenged the CBI's charge sheet, which absolves Pandher of abduction, rape and killings of the children and young women in the serial killings and put all the blame on his domestic help Surendra Koli.
Sarkar's counsel Khaleed Khan had argued that the CBI's act of absolving Pandher of rape, abduction and murder charges were "lawfully and factually wrong".
The CBI counsel, however, defended the agency's decision saying that there was no evidence of Pandher's role in abductions and murders.
The court had to postpone its ruling due to lawyers going on a sudden three-day strike to participate in the ongoing celebrations for the 150th year of the 1857 sepoy mutiny against the British rule.
With May 10 being a holiday in the Uttar Pradesh, Judge Jain deferred her ruling to May 11.
Sources apprehended that the court may not be able to function even on May 11 as votes for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be counted that day.
Jain, after hearing the arguments by counsels for the petitioner and the CBI, had on May 4 reserved her order for May 7.
At least 17 human skulls and bones had been dug up from near Pandher's bungalow in Noida's Sector 31 in December last year.
Pandher's domestic aide Surendera Koli had owned up to all the charges of murder and rape in his confession before a metropolitan magistrate in Delhi.