— Photo: AP

Moninder Singh Pandher (right) and his domestic help Surender Koli (left) in a file photo.

NEW DELHI : The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday filed the first charge sheet in the Nithari serial killings case against businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, his servant Surinder Koli and the former Nithari police-post in-charge Simranjeet Kaur.

Filing the charge sheet in the court of Ghaziabad Special Judicial Magistrate Sapna Mishra, the CBI accused Surinder of abducting, criminally assaulting and killing a young woman Payal on May 7, 2006, before disposing of her body and destroying evidence. He has also been charged with stealing her mobile phone and money.

Moninder has been booked under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act for bringing in sex workers, including Payal, availing himself of their services along with his friends, and using his house as a brothel. He has been charged with forcing Payal's father Nand Lal and Neelam, who introduced her to him, not to give statements against him. Monider has also been accused of bribing police officers to clear his and Surinder's name in the case conspiring with Simranjeet Kaur to create false records, and destroying evidence of commission of the crime by his servant.

The CBI has charged Simranjeet with conspiring with Moninder, accepting bribe and gifts from him, preparing false records for clearing his and his servant's name in the Payal murder case and destroying evidence.

Addressing a press conference here, CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar said Surinder and Moninder were subjected to polygraph, psychological assessment and narco-analysis tests, besides brain mapping, in the Gandhi Nagar Forensic Science Laboratory in Gujarat and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory here. They were also subjected to forensic psychiatric assessment tests by mental health experts.

The board opined that Surinder suffered from necrophilia (erotic attraction to corpses) and necrophagia (feeding on dead bodies or carrion). "He does not suffer from psychotic disorder or any other psychiatric illness and was fully conscious at the time of committing the crime,'' said Mr. Kumar. Moninder was also not found to be suffering from any psychotic disorder or psychiatric illness.

Mr. Kumar said Surinder, in his confession before a Delhi court, admitted to having called in, criminally assaulted and strangulated Payal. He disposed of the body, dismembering it. "He admitted to having killed 15 more women and children between February 2005 and November 2006. After he murdered the first victim, he cooked part of her body and ate it. He did the same in the second case. His third victim was a child, and he tried to eat the raw liver but vomited," said Mr. Kumar.

The breakthrough in the Payal case came when the Noida police recovered her mobile phone, which Surinder used for some time after killing her.

Investigations revealed that he first obtained a mobile SIM card using the identification proof of one of Moninder's friends and used it in Payal's mobile phone. He then bought two more SIM cards in his own name. He lost the mobile phone to a rickshaw puller, then it changed hands several times and was finally sold to one Arun Bajriwala.

Suspecting Moninder's involvement in the killings, the CBI scanned his mobile phone records but found that he was not at his house at the time the murders were committed there. In two cases he was abroad, while in nine other cases he was not in Noida. In the other five cases, he was in Noida but not in the Sector 31 area.

The agency has virtually given a clean chit to Moninder in 16 of the 18 cases of murder, stating it was committed by Surinder without his knowledge.

Mr. Kumar said the identities of eight of the deceased had been established in DNA analysis, and skeletons of 19 persons "individualised" from the remains recovered from the drain adjoining Moninder's house. Investigations into the other cases were on and the role of some more police officers was also being probed.

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