Court holds Pandher, Koli guilty in rape-murder case

Ghaziabad, Dec 7 A CBI court here on Thursday held businessman Maninder Singh Pandher and his aide Surendra Koli guilty in the rape and murder of housemaid Anjali in 2006.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge P.K. Tiwari said since both were involved in the crime they deserved to be punished.

The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment in the ninth case of what has come to be known as the Nithari killings on Friday, prosecution lawyer J.P. Sharma said.

It is the third case in which Pandher has been found guilty. He was sentenced to death in two cases earlier on.

Sharma said Koli had been found guilty in eight cases decided earlier as well and given the death sentence.

Chargesheets were filed against the two accused in 16 of the 19 cases, out of which nine cases have been decided till date.

The family of Anjali, 25, had filed a missing person complaint after she failed to return home on October 12, 2006.

After Koli's arrest on December 29, 2006, police recovered some human skulls and bones from behind Pandher's house in Noida.

DNA samples from one of the skulls matched with that of Anjali's mother and brother. The clothes she was wearing when she went missing were also identified by her family.