Pandher, Koli get death; Nithari celebrates

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Ghaziabad: Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli were on Friday awarded the death sentence for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl--the first punishment in the gruesome murders of 19 children and young women from Nithari village near Noida city in Uttar Pradesh.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court ruled that the rape and murder of Rimpa Halder was the “rarest of rare” crime and deserved capital punishment.

Of the 19 cases of abduction, rape and murder, the CBI has filed charge-sheets in 16 cases. All the cases are being heard separately. Koli, 38, has been charged with rape, abduction and murder in all the cases and Pandher, 55, is co-accused in six cases.

The courtroom, packed with relatives of the victims who were raped, murdered and some eaten, fell into silence as judge Rama Jain pronounced her sentence.

"No more penalty could be awarded to the accused persons otherwise. They deserve more punishment as their act of murder and rape in this particular case was beyond all the canons of humanity," the judge said.