Koli sentenced to death for fifth time in Nithari killings

Nithari serial killer Surender Koli was on Monday sentenced to death for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl by a Special CBI court here, the fifth case in which he has been awarded capital punishment after the horrific crimes came to light in 2006.

Special CBI Judge S Lal found Koli, 40, guilty of kidnapping, rape and murder of “chhoti Kavita” (assumed identity given by the court) besides destruction of evidence and sentenced him to death.

Koli was given death sentence for murder, life-sentence for abduction, ten years’ rigorous imprisonment for rape and seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for destruction of evidence.

The victim had gone missing from outside the house of Koli’s employer Moninder Singh Pandher at Sector 31 in Noida in 2005 after which her father had filed complaint with the local police.

Pandher and his domestic help Koli were arrested on December 29, 2006, after the police recovered skeletons and other belongings of the missing girls from the drain outside his house.

Pandher was not an accused in this murder case. Koli confessed to killing several girls, including the victim, chopping their body to pieces and throwing them in the backyard and in the drain near the house. The CBI had registered the case on January 11, 2007, relating to kidnapping, rape and murder of the victim.

“Upon conclusion of the trial, the special judge for CBI cases, Ghaziabad, found the accused guilty of kidnapping, rape, murder and destruction of evidence and convicted him,” the CBI spokesperson said here on Monday.