TNN

Ghaziabad, Feb 12: Moninder Singh Pandher and domestic help Surinder Koli have been found guilty of the rape and murder of minor girl Rimpa Haldar in the Nithari killings case by special judge Rama Jain on Thursday.

Quantum of sentence will be pronounced by the special CBI court in Ghaziabad on Friday.

Rimpa Haldar is one of the 19 children and young women from Nithari village near Noida whose body parts were found in a drain in the Delhi suburb.

Earlier, special judge Rama Jain gave Moninder Singh Pandher, behind whose bungalow the remains were found, one last chance to clarify details in the case before deferring her ruling.

The two accused were brought to the special court being held in court number 27 at 10.30 a.m. from Dasna jail.

Pandher, wearing beige pants and a sweater to match was at ease, while Koli, the main accused, seemed tense and was handcuffed.

The grisly Nithari rapes and murders case shocked the nation when 10 skulls, bones and clothes of children from Nithari, in Noida's Sector 31, were dug out from a narrow corridor at the rear of the house of Moninder Singh Pandher, on December 29, 2006.

Pandher and his domestic helper Surendra Koli were subsequently arrested and booked for kidnapping, rape, murder and concealing evidence by Noida's Sector 20 police.

More skulls, bones, clothes and footwear were later recovered from the drain in front of Pandher's house, D-51, Sector 31. The remains of 19 children were also recovered.

Soon after, 18 Noida police officers were suspended or transferred following allegations of "their severe negligence" in the investigation of the case of children disappearing from Nithari, before the skeletons were found.

All of them are back at work now. Then Nithari police post incharge, sub-inspector Simranjit Kaur, is still in jail after she was arrested for accepting bribe from Pandher.

The investigation of the entire case was handed to the CBI on January 11, 2007. The CBI has filed chargesheets in 16 of these cases, with the chargesheets in the other three cases still awaited.

The Rimpa Haldar case, by itself, began with the seven-year-old girl’s father filing a report about her going missing on July 15, 2005 at Noida's Sector 20 police station.

On October 7, a report was filed specifically against Pandher and Koli. On May 5, the CBI filed a chargesheet in Rimpa's case and charged only Koli with rape and murder.

The trial in the case began on July 7, 2007 in a CBI court in Ghaziabad. Twelve days later, Pandher was also declared an accused for rape and murder by the court.

The CBI produced 39 witnesses in the case, with the defence presenting two.

Finally, the statements of Pandher and Koli were recorded in court, on January 30.