Nithari killings: Non-bailable warrant against victim's father

The warrant was issued yesterday after Lal, a witness in the case and father of the victim Payal, failed to appear before the court.

"Nand Lal has withdrawn his statement given in a trial court that he saw Pandher giving a bribe to the then Noida DSP Dinesh Yadav, who had recovered an axe used in butchering children from his house.

Lal later tuned hostile in the case.
"He was avoiding to appear before the court for long. The Judge took it seriously and directed the police to arrest Lal and present him before the court on October 21, 2010," Defence Lawyer Khalid Khan told PTI.

Payal is one of the victims, whose body parts were found in a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's D-31 bungalow in Nithari in Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Both Pandher and his domestic aide Surinder Koli have been accused of killing young children and women and a total of 19 cases have been lodged against them.

Both Pandher and Koli were on February 13, 2009, sentenced to death in the Rimpa Haldar case in the first verdict in the Nithari killings. However, Pandher was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court on September 11, last year.