Two weeks after the Uttar Pradesh police dug out 17 skeletons of young children and women from a bungalow at Nithari village, near Noida, Uttar Pradesh, a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) landed at the residence of Moninder Singh Pandher, prime suspect in the serial killings, on Friday. The CBI team will look for vital clues in the case relating to the ghastly sexual abuse and murder of several children and women. The 30-member-strong CBI team, including forensic experts, visited Nithari early on Friday and surveyed the scene of the crime and the drain from which the skeletal remains of the children had been recovered. The CBI team, led by DIG M K Narayanan and Joint Director Arun Kumar, also inspected the adjoining buildings. Senior officials of the Noida police accompanied the team. The Noida police had recovered 17 skulls and several bone pieces from the drain and the bungalow premises on December 29, 2006, and afterwards. The CBI has set up over a dozen teams to investigate every aspect of the grisly crime, following a formal request from the Uttar Pradesh Government. The central investigating agency is being assisted by forensic experts from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Laboratory, and the Central Forensic and Sciences Laboratory in conducting tests on the recovered bones. The CBI team will also examine if there were any lapses on the part of the local police. The agency has already taken Pandher, the key accused, and his domestic help Surendra Koli into its custody for a fortnight. The CBI sleuths may question the staff at nearby hospitals and nursing homes in the light of reports that the Nithari killings were possibly linked to a human organ racket. The agency is also likely to conduct a series of DNA tests to identify the victims. UP ASSEMBLY SESION: The new session of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will be convened on January 18. The session comes after four Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ministers walked out of the Mulayam Singh Government on Tuesday, led by RLD chief Ajit Singh. Mulayam Singh has 225 MLAs with him in the 402-member House, 23 more than the majority mark. The government has been drawing criticism from all quarters for the worsening law and order situation in the state. Labels: nithari |
