Nithari: HC acquits Pandher, upholds Koli death sentence

New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court on Friday acquitted businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in one of the Nithari serial killing case, setting aside the death sentence awarded to him by a lower court.

The court, however, upheld the capital punishment handed down to his domestic help Surinder Koli.

The order was passed by a Division Bench comprising Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Justice K N Pandey which observed that "no evidence has been placed on record to show that Pandher was guilty".

Pandher and Koli were awarded death sentence by a special court in Ghaziabad on February 13 this year for the murder of 14-year-old girl Rimpa Halder at his house in Noida.

Significantly, CBI, which was investigating the Nithari episode, had given a "clean chit" to Pandher, a Noida-based businessman, in its chargesheet.

Pandher's son Karandeep Singh, who was present in the High Court, expressed delight over the acquittal of his father and said he was now looking forward to "justice in the remaining cases related to this matter".

"There is God, and there is justice in the country," Karandeep said.

The High Court, he said, had sustained CBI's chargesheet and "we are quite happy about that".

Pandher's lawyer Monisha Bhandari said that she will try for bail for her client in view of the verdict.

G S Chaturvedi, senior counsel and amicus curiae in the case, hoped that Koli would file an appeal against the high court verdict in the Supreme Court.

Regarding Pandher, he said the trial court had adopted a procedure which was not scientific and "had thrown legality and caution to the winds".

Secondly, there was no evidence against the man (Pandher)," he said noting that the businessman was in Australia when the girl was murdered.

He also said that this verdict may have a bearing in some other pending Nithari cases as the evidence was similar. None of the family members of Koli, whose death sentence has been upheld, or that of the victim Rimpa, was present on the occasion.

The trial court had awarded death sentence to Pandher and Koli for the murder of Haldar, who had gone missing from her house on April 27, 2006.

The CBI had given a clean chit to Pandher on the basis of the fact that he was out of station while the alleged incident had taken place.