CBI team visits Nithari for further investigation

A multi-member Central Bureau of Investigation and forensic team visited Nithari serial killing suspect Moninder Singh Pandher's residence in Noida on Friday looking for vital clues in the sexual abuse and murder of several children and women.

The team, comprising nearly 30 members, scanned the scene of crime, inspected adjoining buildings and the drain behind Pandher's D-5 residence from where local police had recovered 17 skulls and other bones in.

The CBI's Special Crime Branch, which is investigating the shocking case, has formed over a dozen teams to probe every aspect of the grisly crime and look into whether there were any lapses on the part of the local police.

The agency on Thursday took into custody Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli for a fortnight as it began its investigation into the serial murders. The duo will be in CBI custody till January 25.

The CBI has roped in forensic experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Andhra Pradesh Forensic Laboratory and Central Forensic and Sciences Laboratory to conduct tests on the bones.

The agency sleuths may also question staff at nearby hospitals and nursing homes amidst reports that the Nithari killings were possiblly linked to a human organ racket, sources said.

The task is herculean as the sleuths have to find out the identity of the persons killed and their parent. Proper DNA matching would be done before arriving at conclusive evidence, the sources added.

Senior Noida police officials including SSP R K S Rathore accompany the CBI team, led by DIG M K Narayanan and Joint Director Arun Kumar.

"Our investigation is at a preliminary stage now," a CBI officer said on condition of anonymity. The forensic experts visiting the scene of crime are K L Dogra from AIIMS, K P Gandhi from Andhra Pradesh Forensic Laboratory and S R Singh from CFSL.

Sources said the forensic team would match their findings with that of the report given by the team of forensic science experts from Agra who had visited the site last week.

The team from the Forensic Science Laboratory in Agra had found 30 more bones from near the residence of Pandher. A preliminary post-mortem report said there were no torso bones among the remains found. Also, there were no skulls among the fresh skeletal finds, a police official said.