Pandher has some explanation to do: Apex court
By IANSTuesday, February 15, 2011
NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Tuesday confirmed the death penalty awarded to Nithari serial killer Surendra Koli and indicated that his employer and businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, in whose house the gruesome murders took place in 2006, had some explanation to do.
“For two years, murders were going on in your (Pandher’s) house. Except for 15 days when you were away to Australia, to say that you were not aware of what was going in your house, it is difficult to believe,” the court said.
The apex court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra confirmed the death sentence awarded to Koli by the Allahabad High Court for killing Rimpa Haldar, 14, but did not say much on Pandher, who was also awarded the death sentence in the case by the trial court but was acquitted by the high court.
The court said that any confirmation of the acquittal of Pandher in the Rimpa case would have repercussion on other Nithari cases where he is co-accused with Koli.
