Gallows for Pandher and Koli

Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli were sentenced to death on Friday for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, Rimpa Halder, one of 19 victims in the sensational Nithari serial killings.

Pronouncing the sentence on Friday, special CBI judge Rama Jain held that the crime committed by Pandher, 55, and Koli, 38, was “rarest of the rare” and deserved capital punishment.

Pandher broke down after the sentencing but Koli appeared unmoved. The duo face another 15 cases related to the gruesome killings, which first came to light in December 2006 when residents of Nithari found human skeletons buried behind Pandher’s house on the outskirts of Noida. Forensic experts later found 57 bags of skeletons from inside and outside Pandher’s house.

While Khalid Khan, counsel for the victim's family, termed the verdict a “slap on the face of the CBI”, which had given Pandher a clean chit, the businessman's son, Karandeep Singh, said his father was innocent and he would appeal against the judgment in the Allahabad High Court.

The court had convicted Pandher and Koli on Thursday for murder, rape, criminal conspiracy, and destruction of evidence.