Pandher's family says court is punishing 'innocent'

Neelabh Srivastava and Achinta Borah

Ghaziabad, Feb 13 (PTI) Describing Moninder Singh Pandher
as "innocent", family members of the businessman accused media
of influencing a special CBI court's verdict which found the
entrepreneur and his servant Surinder Koli guilty in the
murder and rape of a 14-year-old girl.

"He is innocent," Pandher's wife Devender Kaur said
rubbishing media reports which claimed that they were
divorced.

Pandher's family blamed Koli for the rape and murder
of Rimpa Halder, one of the victims of infamous Nithari
killings in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.

"We never suspected his intentions and activities. I
lived in that house (D-5 sector 31) from 2000 to 2005, but I
could never suspect what all Koli has been doing. The house
was always spic and span. Koli was a clever man and he knows
what to say and what not to," Kaur told PTI.

Pandher's 25-year-old son Karandeep Singh, who was upset
over the verdict's outcome, sarcastically thanked media for
the court's judgement that declared his father guilty along
with Koli in the rape and murder of Halder.

"I would rather wish that my father is awarded a capital
punishment. There are 19 other cases which will be fought on
the same evidence and my father will be doomed in the jail for
his entire life," he said.

"I talked to the media for the first time in January
2007, but it always kept ignoring our version," Karan said.

"He was a very chilled out father and a very good friend
to my friends."

Karan, a student of political science in Canada-based
University of Windsor, said many of his father's friends who
were involved with him in his business, left him after this
case. But his friends back in Canada were still with him.

He said his father maintained a very tight schedule and
was on the verge of expanding his business when this case
broke out.

"It was said that the barbecue installed in the house
was used for roasting human flesh. It was installed by me. I
never found something of that sort," Pandher's wife said.

"His normal schedule was that he came back from his
business meetings, went straight into his room and watched
television. He never bothered about what was happening in his
house. Koli served the food in the same room when he came
back. He was a avid fan of the History channel."

Karan said that certain things about prostitution was
happening at this home (Pandher's house) but this is all
secondary and his mother is the one who should hold his father
guilty and not someone else.

"I'm getting regular calls from my friends in Canada who
ask about the development in the case. They all want him
safe," he added. PTI NES/ACB