By IANS,
Ghaziabad : A court here Friday reserved its judgement on the sensational Nithari serial murders case for Feb 12 after hearing concluding arguments.
The local Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of Additional District Judge Rama Jain Friday reserved the judgment after the prosecution and defence counsel made their final arguments.
The prosecution argued for punishment to only Surendra Koli, the manservant accused in the serial rapes and murders, and set aside Maninder Singh Pandher, a businessman accused in the crimes.
However, Khalid Khan, the lawyer for the family of victim Rimpa Halder, urged the court to punish Pandher for the same charges of abduction and murder of the 14-year-old girl.
Khalid Khan, in his arguments, raised serious question of how could the CBI let off Pandher on the basis of alibi by just showing immigration stamps on his passport. He said Rimpa Halder went missing Feb 8, 2005, but the case of her abduction and murder was registered on July 20, 2005, after five months.
The exact date of her murder could not be established till the submission of the charge sheet. How could the CBI let off Pandher on the basis of an alibi by simply showing the seals of the immigration officers at Australia and New Delhi. In the absence of the air ticket, the journey could not be established, added the lawyer.
The Noida police on Dec 29, 2006, admitted that at the time of recovery of the clothes of another victim Rachna, Pandher and Koli signed the memo which affirmed their presence but the CBI ignored this fact. Even the doctor, Manish Kumbat, in his report stated that the weapon used in the crime was sharp edged – like a saw – and not a pointed one, but the CBI ignored this fact too, Khalid Khan stressed.
Khalid Khan said that the CBI had committed deliberate lapses in the charge sheet since the probe agency wanted to let off Pandher and for that it had submitted the charge sheet only against Koli. Even the Noida police connived with the CBI to let off Pandher, he said.
To prove his point, Khan requested the court to summon the case diary maintained by the Noida police in the early stage of the case before it was handed over to the CBI. He said the agency did not present the case diary along with the charge sheet.
In the case diary, the Noida police had stated before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Noida that the saw was recovered from Koli and Pandher. The CBI presented no reference to this in its charge sheet before the CBI court.
The case was transferred to the CBI Jan 11, 2007. The CBI submitted its charge sheet on May 19, 2007, and the trial started on July 4 that year. Pandher, who was freed by the CBI, was admitted co-accused in the case after Khalid Khan appeared on behalf of victims. Fortyone witnesses testified during trial, of whom 37 were from prosecution and two from defence.