New Delhi: Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's D-5 bungalow, Noida, the horror house - where at least 17 children were allegedly sexually assaulted and brutally murdered - has more tales hidden between its four walls.
Only a few people who studied with him at the elite Bishop Cotton School (from 1963 to 1973) recall him as a "mentally sick man, with a disturbed childhood".
A classmate of Pandher's told IANS, "I remember Pandher had a somewhat disturbed childhood on account of his mother. I also know he began drinking heavily three-four years ago, which strained his relations with his wife. I suspect he developed a serious mental sickness in recent years."
However, others who were with him at school and then in college - St Stephens - are shocked to hear of the grisly tales doing the rounds. They say that Goldy - as he was fondly called by those who knew him - was a "wonderful chap" who was a tolerant boy.
They find it hard to believe that he has been accused of being a paedophile and is being branded a psychopath serial killer.
After graduating from college, Pandher inherited his family's transport business that he ran efficiently and which is spread across Delhi, Noida, Chandigarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
Most of those who knew him earlier in life and later through work describe him as generous and courteous. His acquaintances admit that he had a drinking problem, which they are quick to add that he kicked nearly 12 years earlier.
However, they do say that he would always trust his servants more than was advisable by most people - in fact sometimes more than he would trust his family members. Pandher’s alleged accomplice in the mass murder is his servant, Surendra, who is accused of luring young children from the neighbourhood to the house.
Pandher's estranged wife, who lives with their son Karan in Chandigarh is also being questioned by the police, in the hope of gaining some insight into his personality.
Pandher is said to be severely diabetic and is likely to undergo a narco-analysis test to determine his involvement in the matter.
He mostly lived in the house he owned in Noida, a suburban town of Delhi, where the skeletons of at least 17 children, suspected to have been killed by him and Surendra, were recovered by police last week in a case that has shocked the nation.
Surendra, who reportedly confessed to having killed about a dozen children whose remains have been found in the backyard of their house.
The numbers could be higher in one of India's most sensational and gruesome crimes with 38 children reported missing from nearby Nithari village.
(With inputs from IANS)
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