The police have arrested school owner Anuj Kumar on charges of culpable homicide

The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted bail to 60-year-old Moninder Singh Pandher in five cases related to the Nithari killings in Noida, in which minor girls and young women were allegedly lured, sexually assaulted and murdered by Pandher’s domestic help Surendra Koli inside his house in Sector-31, Noida.

While Koli has been sentenced to death and his mercy petition rejected, Pandher was acquitted in a case pertaining to 22-year-old Payal, daughter of Nand Lal, on September 11, 2009.

The disappearances and killings in Pandher’s house, D-5, Sector-31, were reported between June 2005 and December 2006, when several FIRs were filed against Koli and Pandher. However, the CBI did not chargesheet Pandher initially. He was also booked under lighter sections pertaining to harbouring an offender and screening him from police.