Noida killings: Centre orders probe

The team, constituted by the Minister of Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury on Wednesday, will take stock of the efforts made by Noida police in locating the children who went missing. It will also:

• assess the level of cooperation the local administration, particularly the police, has provided to the families of the missing children and the Nithari village community.

• go into the modus operandi and the motive of the accused.

The inquiry committee, which is headed by joint secretary in the ministry Manjula Krishnan and has a member each from the Union Home Ministry, the UP government and the ministry of women and child development, has 15 days to submit a report on the case.

The move comes a day after the NHRC took note of the case and drew the the UP government’s attention to reports that over 30 children had gone missing since 2004 but only a handful of complaints had been registered by the police. The National Commission for Women has also taken note of the gruesome incident and the alleged laxity of the area police.

Skeletal remains of 17 people, including 12 children, had been found last Friday near a Sector 31 house owned by Moninder Singh Pandher. His domestic help Surendra is also an accused. After the remains were found, there were indications that the ministry would ask the state government for a report but the Ministry said it has not.