| Tuesday, January 16, 2007 |
| Nithari killings: More lapses of local police come to light |
As the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the ghastly mass killings in Nithari village in Noida progresses, more evidence pointing to the lapses of the local police are coming to light.
Over the last few of days, the CBI team found a number of things which had been overlooked by the Noida police investigating the Nithari killings.
With the discovery of several bundles containing parts of human torsos, the CBI investigators have said they believe it was unlikely that Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli had links to any illegal organ trade business.
Pandher and Koli are the main accused in the gruesome murders of nearly 22 children in Noida's Nithari village.
The CBI came across body parts chopped and packed into several small bundles, more human bones and blood samples from the house of Moninder Singh Pandher, the main accused. young women and children being kidnapped, sexually assaulted and butchered to death in Pandher’s D-5 bungalow in Sector 31.
CBI sources say the bundles may contain parts of the children’s torsos, which had not been found with the skeletal remains dug up earlier.
This has led to speculation as to whether there was an organ trade angle to the mass killings of children. Establishing the veracity of this speculation may take a while because the forensic experts want the bundles thoroughly cleaned before they are opened.
Anyway, it is getting more and more clear that the investigation by the Noida police into the case so far has missed some crucial evidence. However, R K S Rathore, SSP of Noida, says the Noida police had limited time to collect evidence. “We were also limited by the law and order situation in Nithari,” he said.
The CBI team, while making it clear that they are not engaged in any witch-hunt in the Nithari killings case, some of the lapses of the local police have become quite evident and that if the lapses become very obvious, the central agency will register a case against the Uttar Pradesh police.
The organ trade theory had been put strengthened after the Uttar Pradesh police said they had recovered surgical implements and knives from Pandher’s house.
A senior police officer had even said that the manner in which the bodies were disposed was the same way in which hospitals got rid of their waste, “showing clinical precision in the entire operation.”
The local police investigators had also said the bodies were neatly stored in packets and probably treated with chemicals to prevent accumulation of bacteria and emission of foul smell.
After interrogating Koli, the CBI has come to the prima facie conclusion that Pandher is a psychopath who used to carry out the killings, a source said.
However, depsite the results of the narco-analysis test, in which Koli said that his employer, Pandher, knew nothing about the murders, the CBI is not yet ruling out Pandher’s role in the grisly murders.Labels: nithari |
| posted by a correspondent @ 1:01 AM |
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