Ghaziabad, Dec 22 (IANS) The following is the timeline in the infamous Nithari serial killings of 19 young women and children, whose remains were discovered four years ago and in which co-accused Surinder Koli was Wednesday handed a fourth death sentence.
Dec 29, 2006: Fifteen human skulls, skeletal remains and fragments of clothes stuffed in gunny bags found in a drain behind bungalow number D-5 in Noida’s Sector 31, adjacent to Nithari village. Noida police arrest bungalor owner Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surender Koli on charges of rape and murder.
December 30: More skeletons found. Five policemen suspended for mishandling the investigation as some parents alleged that they had complained almost two years ago that their children had gone missing.
December 31: Then Uttar Pradesh police chief Bua Singh admits laxity and negligence in handling the case and orders a high-level probe. Hundreds of villagers vandalise the D-5 bungalow and demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
Jan 1, 2007: Policemen and villagers clash over the serial killings. Police question Pandher’s family in Chandigarh.
January 5: Hundreds of Nithari villagers come out on the streets and demand justice as Pandher and Koli are taken to Gujarat for a narco-analysis test.
January 9: More skeletons found in the drain behind the bungalow.
January 10: The CBI takes over the probe and custody of documents.
January 13: Around 30 officers, mainly CBI sleuths and forensic experts, find more human remains from two drains.
January 25: A group of lawyers and bystanders attack Pandher and Koli when they were being taken to a Ghaziabad court.
February 13: The CBI claims that bones of four women and 15 children have been recovered.
March 1: Koli records his confessional statement in a Delhi court.
March 22: The CBI gives clean chit to Pandher but indicts Koli, terming him a cannibal, and charges him with rape of a 20-year-old victim, Payal.
April 10: The CBI files charges in Payal’s killing. Koli charged with abduction, rape and murder. Pandher let off. Payal’s murder case is yet to be finalised.
May 11: The CBI court asks the investigating agency to take a fresh look at Pandher’s role. Till this day, the CBI has filed 16 charge sheets aganinst Koli and the court has framed charges of rape and murder against Pandher in six cases.
Feb 12/13, 2009: Pandher and Koli convicted and sentenced to death for raping and killing 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar. First death sentence for Koli.
September 11: The Allahabad High Court acquits Pandher, setting aside the death sentence awarded to him.
January 7, 2010: Supreme Court stays Koli’s death sentence in the Haldar case.
May 4: Koli found guilty of murder of Arti Prasad, 7, and handed a second death sentence on May 12.
September 28: Koli handed a third death penalty, this time for murdering eight-year-old Rachna Lal, daughter of labourer Pappu Lal.
December 22: Koli handed a fourth death sentence.
