Outside the home of Moninder Pandher Outside the home of Moninder Pandher

Police found 15 skulls and a number of bones at Moninder Pandher’s house in Nithari. One of those skulls belonged to Pinki Sarkar (20) — the last victim in the 2006 Nithari serial murders. She was eventually identified through her black hair clip, discarded salwar suit, slippers and the chunni used to strangle her.

These revelations are part of the CBI investigation into the eighth case — among a total of 16 murders — being tried at the CBI court in Ghaziabad, as per documents pertaining to the case. The judgment in the eighth case is expected on Saturday, while eight more murders await judgment.

Documents pertaining to the case state that the investigation “establishes” that Pandher’s domestic help Surinder Koli used to “lure” victims, including Sarkar, and that Koli “strangulated her with her own chunni” and “killed her”, also “attempting to rape her”.

Afterwards, he “carried the body to the bathroom on the first floor… which was for his exclusive use… dismembered the body with a knife” and threw her head and garments behind the house. The “body parts were thrown into the drain running in front of the house”, documents show.

The documents add that “Koli made a disclosure that he had lured” Sarkar and others, killed them and discarded their body parts in a similar manner.

Before her disappearance, Pinki Sarkar was watching a TV show till 1.30 pm, and then left for work. When she didn’t return home, her parents looked for her, approached police and even tried searching for her in Bengal, investigation documents show.

They add that the victim’s parents, Jatin and Vandana Sarkar, on April 7, 2007, were eventually able to identify her “salwar suit and slippers” and afterwards, “Koli also identified (her) black hair clip”. The FIR in the case was lodged only after the parents identified their dead daughter’s clothes, said sources.

Sources said that the investigation by the CBI did not make Pandher an accused in the case. On the day of her death, Pandher was “in his company’s office in Sector 2 till about 1.30 pm and thereafter left for Dehradun” in his SUV along with his driver, documents state, adding that he checked into a hotel in Dehradun at 11.27 pm.

“No evidence has surfaced showing the involvement of the accused Moninder Singh Pandher” in her abduction and murder, it said. However, under Section 319 of the CrPC, the CBI court summoned Pandher on the basis of an application moved by the victim’s family, said sources.

In 2006, Pandher and his domestic help Koli were accused of abducting and raping children and women from nearby villages of Nithari in Noida, committing acts of cannibalism, and then disposing their bodies in a drain in the locality. They were arrested in December 2006. Pandher was later released on bail.

The police had filed 19 FIRs against Pandher and Koli relating to crimes against 19 different girls, and the CBI filed chargesheets in 16 of them. In three FIRs, chargesheets weren’t filed because the “offense couldn’t be ascertained”, said sources.

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