Noida: Surinder Koli has been given the death sentence for the rape and murder of Aarti, a seven-year-old who was among the 19 young women and children killed in the Nithari massacre. This is the second death sentence for Koli in connection with the Nithari killings. He has been tried for two murders so far.
In December 2006, the police stumbled upon bones and skulls, many of them belonging to young children, in a drain in Noida, a Delhi suburb. Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli were accused of their murders, which collectively came to be known as the Nithari massacre.
Pandher, a wealthy businessman from Chandigarh, owned the Noida house where, along with his domestic help, Surinder, he allegedly raped and killed children from the nearby village of Nithari. Parents had filed several complaints with the local police about missing children between 2005 and 2006. The police refused to help them. Later, activists would point out that because the families were poor, they were ignored by those in power.
Till the drain behind Pandher's house was discovered -a tacit graveyard of unspeakable horror.
Initially, Pandher and Koli led the police to a bathroom where they said they killed some of their victims. They also shared details of the knife they used. Later, Pandher retracted. He now insists he is not guilty and was not in Noida when several of his alleged victims were killed.
The case was transferred from the Noida police to the CBI in 2007.
Koli is accused of rape and murder in all 19 cases. Pandher has been co-accused in six of them. Aarti's murder is not among those.
Koli was given the death sentence in February last year in the case of Rimpa Haldar. Pandher, who was co-accused in that case, was also given the death sentence, but he challenged that in the Allahabad High Court and won.
The families of the Nithari victims say that if Pandher is not tried for murder along with Koli, justice is being denied. They believe that Pandher's wealth and its consequent political connections are letting him off the hook.