‘Destroyed lives of many families… how can this be?’: Kin of Nithari victims question acquittal

Breaking down, the woman said this was a clear injustice to the victims and their families. “She was my fifth child… she wanted to become a doctor. That day, I had sent her to a tailor shop… just on the other side of Pandher’s house. When she did not come back after two-three hours, I started looking for her. I searched every possible place… On my way back, Pandher and Koli were standing at the gate, talking to each other. When I asked them if they had seen my daughter, they replied rudely ‘hume nahi pata, humne nahi dekha hai’,” said the woman, who originally hails from Unnao district and has been living in Nithari for around 35 years.

“I used to iron clothes at this location back then as well. Koli used to bring Pandher’s clothes to me… and one day, I spotted blood-like stains on his Pathani suit. When I asked Koli about it, he said that Saheb had gone to the Sector 37 market to buy chicken, and stained his suit… When children started going missing, police did not file a case and just said they would help find them… One of the policemen was honest and he said ‘diya tale hi andhera hai’ (a phrase that means the problem is around here). After one year and seven months, I got to know what happened to my daughter…,” she added.

Her husband said they spent all their money fighting the case: “From the media, I got to know about the judgment. But how can this be? I saw the skull and clothes recovered from the drain and gali behind his (Pandher’s) house. I have been living in pain for years and now, it has increased. The way those men murdered my daughter, they must be brought to justice. They destroyed the lives of many families…”

For a 40-year-old woman, who runs an electronics shop, the loss of her five-year-old son still weighs heavily. “He was my eldest, he would have been around 23 years now. That day, he had asked for money to buy sugarcane juice from a stall around 200 metres from our house… he never returned. We searched the whole area, but couldn’t find him.”

She added, “We had filed a missing person’s complaint, but police didn’t do anything. One day, a few children, while playing, crossed over the boundary (of D5) to get their ball (that had fallen there). That’s when they spotted something unusual — clothes and a skull. That was the first time I got to know someone named Moninder Singh Pandher lived in that kothi… They had accepted they killed my son and now they are deemed innocent. Do the poor not have the right to get justice?”

After seeing the news on TV, a man, who lost his three-year-old son, came out and angrily threw a brick at Pandher’s house. When asked about the judgment, he said, “I can’t speak currently sir, the pain is very heavy.”

Meanwhile, speaking about the one case in which Koli has been convicted and is serving a life term, his lawyer, Payoshi Roy, said, “… We will approach the SC in the light of this judgment. He has been acquitted on the basis of the same evidence in the 12 cases.”