CBI chief visits Nithari; Surendra brought to killer house

Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Jan 12 (UNI) CBI Director Vijay Shankar today visited Nithari village in Noida sector 31 to personally supervise the ongoing investigation into the serial killings.

Mr Shankar stayed for nearly one-and-a-half hours and enquired about the 'findings' so far after surveying the village and the 'killer house'.

Meanwhile, accused Surendra Koli was today brought to Moninder Singh Pandher's house, co-accused in the case , where he worked as a domestic help, for questioning by the CBI team.

Official sources said his questioning began only after he was taken to the house, including the room where he lived and the backyard where he dumped the skulls of the victims.

Earlier in the day, the CBI team inspected the 'killer house' for the first time after formally taking over investigation in the Nithari serial killings.

The nearly 40-member team, comprising legal experts, officials of the 'Forensic Science Laboratory - Hyderabad' and led by IG (Operations) Arun Kumar, reached Pandher's 'killer house' and inspected it.

While inspecting the house, the team also surveyed the lane situated behind it where skulls of victims were dumped.

The task of getting the 'nullah'-- close to the house of accused, cleaned has also been initiated with municipal workers and excavators being mobilised for the job.

The 'nullah', avoided so far by the administration, reportedly still contains skeletal remains of the victims killed over the two-year period in Nithari allegedly by Moninder and his servant Surendra, allege the villagers. ''The regular popping up of 'bones' was testimony to it,'' they contend.

The investigation team later went to D-6, residence of Navin Chaudhary, Moninder's neighbour and owner of Noida Medicare Centre, where forensic experts gathered some 'samples'. Navin was earlier allegedly involved in the sale of kidneys.

This, said CBI sources, was in consonance with the investigators 'taking all angles' into consideration while carrying out the probe including that of organ trade.

CBI officials also went into the details gathered by the Noida police while the investigating the case.

Meanwhile, sources in the CBI said that an in-depth investigation will be done in the case to confirm that there were no missing links in the 'story' besides looking for a suspected involvement of some other influential people other then the accused.

It would also go into the alleged connivance of police officials to turn a blind eye to the criminal deeds of the accused for monetary considerations.

The CBI had yesterday taken accused Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli in its custody for 14 days (till January 25) for further questioning into the serial killings case after their arrival at New Delhi from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

It had also met the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government, to gather relevant information on the case.

The CBI team had also taken into its possession the 19 FIRs -- 17 of those who have been identified and two others -- filed in connection with the killing of children in Noida sector 31 Nithari village over a period of two years.

In another development, the Allahabad High Court had yesterday refused to grant relief to both the accused on the FIR lodged against them at Noida sector 20 police station, seeking its quashing and directing the police not to take 'coercive measures' against them.

The CBI stepped into the case after the Centre received a notification from the Uttar Pradesh Government on January 10 requesting it to hand over the probe into Nithari killings and Kavita murder case to the Central investigation agency.

UNI