Seventeen years after India\u2019s most shocking and heinous crime, which could also be termed as mass killing of 16 children and one adult came to light, the two accused persons – Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic servant Surinder Kohli- earlier awarded with death sentence on February 13, 2009 and upheld by the Supreme Court in February 2011 were acquitted by the Allahabad High Court\u2019s Bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi on October 17,2023. This is the way justice system works where criminals are left off the hook due to various factors and the victims and their families left high and dry wondering if justice really exists. The case came to light in December 2006 when eight skeletal remains of children were found from the drain of a house, D5, owned by Moninder Singh Pandher in Noida\u2019s Nithari. Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli were accused of abducting and raping children and women from nearby villages of Nithari, committing acts of cannibalism, and disposing of their bodies in a drain in the locality. The two were arrested on December 29, 2006 after police recovered skeletons and other belongings of some missing girls from the drain. Koli had allegedly killed several girls, chopping their bodies to pieces before throwing them in the backyard outside their house. The serial killings took place at Moninder Pandher\u2019s home in Nithari area of Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Noida between 2005 and 2006, according to the CBI. Surinder Koli worked as a help at Pandher\u2019s home, which was dubbed by many as the \u201chouse of horrors\u201d after the revelations. Of 17 skeletons discovered, ten were identified by Surinder Koli when he was confronted with the photographs of the missing children. Five others were identified by family members after being shown belongings recovered from the scene.Two UP policemen were suspended on December 31,2006 for failing to take action despite being informed about a number of children missing. Since the beginning, the UP police handled the entire investigation in a shoddy manner that left many residents angry. The families of the missing children accused the police of negligence. Initially, some police officers, including Noida SP city, denied any criminal angle and asserted that the families had provided false information about the ages of the missing; that they weren\u2019t minors but instead were adults who left home after fighting with their parents. These exposed the total inefficiency of UP Police and after hue and cry, the UP government under then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was forced to take action by suspending several police officers from the SP downwards. Now that the duo have been acquitted by the Allahabad High Court Bench, it would seem that nobody raped, maimed or killed over 17 innocent children at Nithari, Noida UP. The acquittal is nothing less than a travesty of justice and which hurts not only the traumatised families but all those who believe in the rule of law and justice. The UP Police has to take responsibility for the shoddy investigation in the Nithari killings and because of which the quest for justice has been denied and the law made to protect the guilty. It is hoped that the highest legal forum of the land will take a serious note of this travesty and ensure that the guilty are brought to book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seventeen years after India\u2019s most shocking and heinous crime, which could also be termed as mass killing of 16 children and one adult came to light, the two accused persons – Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic servant Surinder Kohli- earlier awarded with death sentence on February 13, 2009 and upheld by the Supreme Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}