Ghaziabad: A CBI court on Monday convicted businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surender Koli to death in the Nithari serial rape and murder case.
Special Judge Pawan Kumar Tripathi gave the ruling after finding them guilty of rape, murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy over the killing of a 20-year-old woman.
The case, the eighth of the several lodged against them, was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI on December 29, 2006.
Koli and Pandher were present in the court during the sentencing.
Prosecution lawyer JP Sharma sought the death sentence and argued that forensic evidence proved that Koli abducted, killed and raped the woman and also tampered with evidence.
On October 5, 2006, the woman was returning home from work. She took the road outside Pandher's residence.
Koli lured her inside where she was killed and beheaded. Investigators found her skull behind the house.
Defence lawyer Devraj Singh pleaded for minimum punishment as Pandher suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.
Pandher's lawyer Devraj Singh said on Saturday his client would appeal against the conviction in a higher court.
"Pandher was never named in the CBI chargesheet in this case and the CBI's investigation had proved Pandher had left for Dehradun on October 5, 2006, from his Noida office and returned on October 10, which in turn proved that Pandher was not involved in the Pinky Sarkar case," Singh said.
According to the CBI chargesheet, Koli had confessed to having lured Pinky, who was returning from work, into the house on October 5, 2006, killed her, dismembered her body, and dumped the body parts in a drain in the rear of the house
Police had discovered 19 skeletons from Pandher's house in Nithari in Noida on December 29, 2006, reported PTI. Most of the victims were young girls.
The gruesome cases came to light in 2006 when the police discovered the skulls and bones of 16 persons, mostly children, near Pandher's house in Noida's Nithari village.
Pandher and Koli were charge-sheeted in 16 of the 19 cases, while three were closed for want of evidence.
Prior to the Pinki Sarkar case, the two were convicted and sentenced in six cases, while nine are in various stages of trial, public prosecutor Jaiprakash Sharma said.
