Master’s slave

The Nithari murder case shows the CBI in a poor light. After the murders of children, is the case being deliberately botched up?

Akash Bisht Delhi

The Nithari investigation is turning out to be a blot on the face of India's premier investigating agency. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) suffered a major setback after a special CBI court framed charges of murder, rape and concealment of facts against Moninder Singh Pandher, whom the CBI in all its earlier chargesheets and statements gave a clean chit despite evidence that he  masterminded the cold-blooded murders. It was on December 29, 2006 when 17 skeletons and remains of women and children belonging to Nithari village were found in a drain flowing beside house No D-5 of Sector 31 in Noida owned by Moninder Singh Pandher. He lived with his servant Surinder Koli who raped, killed and then cut the bodies and threw them in a drain flowing nearby.

The court gave this verdict after the case diary (CD) and the general diary (GD) was submitted to the court by CBI inspector AGL Kaul in the seventh chargesheet that the agency filed. The CBI had earlier concealed these two important documents from the court in all the chargesheets it had filed.

Premchand Dikshit, president of a civil society group, Samajik Vikas Samiti in Ghaziabad, then filed an FIR asking why these documents were not produced. Kaul 'panicked' and to avert arrest submitted these two documents that clearly mention that Pandher had confessed to raping and sodomising women and children in his house.

The CD and GD that were maintained at the Sector 20 police station of Noida record Pandher's statement in which he confessed: “When I could not get a girl at night, I could not sleep. Then I would ask Surendra to make some arrangement. Then he would lure any boy or girl he found near the house. In this way, I raped several small girls and boys in the last one or one-and-a-half years, for which I am sorry. Whoever I raped, I got (them) killed by my servant Surendra according to the plan, so that the secret was never out. Please forgive me.”  (See box)

This is only a part of the statement that was recorded by the then circle officer Dinesh Yadav and has been duly signed by him. Koli and Pandher made these statements on December 29, 2006 wherein Pandher said that Koli killed Payal, one of the girls, on his instructions. However, CBI extensively quoted Koli from the same CD and the confessional statements of Pandher were neglected and not presented to the court till the FIR was filed by Dikshit. The CBI director, in turn, called the investigation done by the Noida Police faulty and said that the police would have taken Pandher's confessional statement by forcing him to do so. 

However, advocate Khalid Khan says, “If the investigation done by the Noida Police was faulty then why does the CBI quote Koli extensively from the same CD and not Pandher?  If they think that the Noida Police did a shoddy investigation then why haven't they filed a case against these police officers? If the police did a shoddy job, the CBI too has not come out clean.” Khan adds that the way the CD and GD were presented in the court is a violation of 'UP Police Regulation' as these papers need to be submitted in a specific format, which was not done in this case.

In the CD it is mentioned that it was Pandher who showed the police where the 'saw' was kept which Koli used to cut his victims into pieces. “This evidence was good enough to indict Pandher but it was again never mentioned in any of the chargesheets until Dikshit filed an FIR. According to Section 27 of the Evidence Act, Pandher is admissible because if anything is found on the instance of the accused he ought to be treated as a guilty party. Apart from this, CBI shifted the burden of proof on itself while it should have been done by Pandher. So CBI was doing what Pandher was supposed to do,” informs Khan.

According to Khan, the CBI's main ground in this episode has been of alibi and they have misused it in trying to save Pandher. The CBI has maintained in all 11 chargesheets that Pandher was out of town whenever these victims disappeared, irrespective of what time or day the killings took place. However, there are no independent witnesses to prove that Pandher was out of town. There are receipts from petrol pumps and records of the hotel where he was staying but no one has come out as a witness on record apart from his driver and some others who know him personally.

“My girl was butchered in that house and it wouldn't have been possible for Koli to kill her alone as she was a strong girl. There is one thing I want to ask CBI. Why will a master waste so much money in saving a monster like Koli? Pandher bribed police officials and tried to destroy evidence — wouldn't it have been easier for him to just sack Koli and tell the police about it. But he never did so. This can't be because of his sheer love for a servant who has been working with him for only three years,” asks Karanveer, father of one of the girls who disappeared on November 12, 2006. The parents of the victims say that they are convinced that Pandher was part of the killings; they alleged that he must have “bribed” the CBI to save himself.

The residents of Nithari also feel that prime witness Jatin Sarkar was murdered. “I spoke to Jatin's wife and she said that the day he died two unidentified men came to his house and took him along. She was convinced that Jatin was killed by someone who thought of him as a hindrance as he was a key witness in this case,” informs Jhabbulal, father of one of the victims.

After the discovery of skeletal remains of women and children, neighbours reported that a foul smell always came from D-5. So the question arises: how come Pandher, who was living in the house, did not notice this strong smell? Parents of murdered children are convinced that the CBI has ignored several crucial facts and leads and is trying to save Pandher despite the common belief and evidence that indicates that Pandher was the mastermind and Koli was following his master's orders.   

Case diary as recorded by Dinesh Yadav, then Circle Officer, Sector 20 Police Station, Noida

During interrogation:

• Moninder Singh confessed, “... Deepika (Payal) had spent several nights with me and so she started blackmailing me. To save myself from her, I planned along with my servant Surendra and made him kill Payal and dispose of her body…”
• “When I could not get a girl at night, I could not sleep. Then I would ask Surendra to make some arrangements. Then he would lure any boy or girl he found near the house. In this way, I raped several small girls and boys in the last one or one-and-a-half years, for which I am sorry. Whoever I raped, I got (them) killed by my servant Surendra according to the plan, so that the secret was never out. Please forgive me.”
• Surendra said, “Sometimes my employer used to call Payal to have sex. One day, my employer told me 'Deepika has now started blackmailing me, so kill her. I will bear all the expenses incurred.'”
• “...On days when (my employer) did not find a girl, he would ask me to make arrangements. Then whoever — kaamwali, dhobin or any boy or girl I could find outside the gate of the house - I would lure them inside. First my employer would rape them and then he would hand them over to me. After raping them, I would kill them...”
• In a letter written to the chief judicial magistrate, Gautambuddha Nagar, Dinesh Yadav, wrote, “….This is to request that accused Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh have confessed of their crime and on their instance we have recovered 15 human skulls and bones…”