The Man Who Killed, Raped and Ate Women and Children
I transcribed his 5-hour confession.
Bungalow number D-5 in Nithari, a village close to the outskirts of New Delhi — the capital of India, was a haven for the rich. Its owner Moninder Singh Pandher, a rich businessman had good relations with the big shots. Rich politicians and members of the judiciary met at his bungalow to drink up and satisfy their lust.
Pandher lived here without his wife and children. His house help Koli stayed with him. Poor women from the neighboring slum frequented his premises as call girls.
Pappu Lal worked three doors down. His daughter Rachna had gone missing. He tried to appeal to the police to register a complaint. They did not comply.
The whole village knew about Pandher’s addiction to alcohol and women. They also suspected Koli’s fetish for children.
Rachna was just one of the first minors. In the year 2003, 59 children, mostly girls, went missing from the nearby slum. Poor parents rushed to the police for help. The police did nothing.
In the year 2005, another 14 year-old-girl named Rimpa Haldar went missing. Her parents made several attempts to register a missing report of her daughter with police but were unsuccessful.
In 2006, a 22-year-old girl named Payal went missing. She told her father Nand Lal that she would go to Pandher’s bungalow. Payal was a prostitute. Attempts by Nand Lal to find his daughter at the location proved futile. House help Koli denied any knowledge.
Attempts to register a complaint with the police were unsuccessful. Nand Lal approached higher ranks of the police. Further investigations revealed that Payal’s cell phone was still functional. Its location was traced back to D-8. Koli had called her a day before she went missing.
As children casually played cricket in front of the suspect’s house, they saw a decomposed hand near the drain. They informed the police. The police told the witnesses that it was just an animal carcass.
Residents in the village were curious and angry. They discovered more human skeletons from the drains located in the front and back of the bungalow. Their rage forced the state government to order a CBI probe in the matter.
Even after the CBI took the case, the disappearances did not stop. Another 4 year-old-girl named Rimpa Haldar went missing.
Digging out skeletons around the suspect’s location was not evidence enough.
The CBI took Koli in custody and questioned him. Koli confessed to killing 5 children and Payal, the call girl. He lured children with chocolate and brought them inside, played with their bodies, cut them up, and ate parts of them. He cut off the heads, bagged them, and buried them in the front drain.
He also admitted to rape Payal as revenge because she denied having sex with him.
Initially, both Koli and Pandhar were arrested and awarded a death sentence. Pandher was accused of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old teenager Rimpa Haldhar, who was one of the children strangled at his Nithari residence.
He was later absolved from these claims and set free. The police concluded that he was not present at the site during any of the killings.
This was even though CBI investigations in both his bungalow and his other house in Chandigarh hinted at his connection in kidnapping children and making porn films.
The investigating teams had recovered photographs of Pandher with nude children and foreigners, hinting that he ran an international pornography racket.
Post mortem reports confirmed 19 skulls were dug out of the drains, 11 of which were of girls. Residents alleged an organ trade angle to the grisly killings of young children.
A doctor living adjoining to the Pandher residence was a suspect. Police had established his involvement with an alleged kidney racket at his hospital. This time the investigators could not derive any information to support the claim.
As of today, Surender Koli has been sentenced to death in 11 out of 16 cases. On September 3, 2014, the court issued a death warrant against Koli. He was transferred to another jail with hanging facilities for the same. The hook and loop to hang Koli had already arrived.
However, a new law that was passed 2 days before doomsday was in his favor. It stated that all review petitions must be heard by a three-judge panel. This review petition was nothing but a letter Koli had written in prison.
Since this was a matter of life and death, Koli’s lawyers sprung into action. In a country where justice was always delayed, three judges and 3 lawyers flew down to meet the chief justice at 3 am. They then drove another 3 hours to reach Koli’s prison in time. At the 11th hour, Koli’s death sentence was withheld.
15 years after committing heinous crimes like sexual abuse, murder, cannibalism, and attempted necrophilia, the culprit still breathes in prison.
At this time, I was working as a journalist in an esteemed news channel. In the very first night shift that I had, I had to transcribe the entire confession statement Koli gave to the CBI.
The audio was 5 hours in length. I had jotted down the details of this gruesome case, hoping to narrate it someday. The time has come.
As I hold the paper in my hands, I realize that I did not need the reference. The details are still fresh in my mind
- Koli confessed to having killed 6 children and the 22 -year old call girl.
- He said that his boss was having sex with women all the time. Koli was supposed to cook for them. Looking at these women, he naturally had sexual feelings.
- He was impotent and he drowned his inability to have sex in abusing children’s bodies. He admitted to having abused and killed children aged 3–11.
- After sexually abusing them, something in him attracted him to blood and gore.
- Screams of the struggling children were music to his ears.
- Though he did not ever use the harsh word rape even once, he proudly admitted to killing them all.
- He did not have sex with them. He tried to. He wasn’t sure he did.
- He would sexually abuse each minor in the drawing-room. Then kill them and drag the bodies upstairs to his personal bathroom.
- He admitted cutting these bodies to three pieces. He would promptly bag and reserve the skull to be thrown in the drain in front of the house.
- He confessed to cooking and eating the liver and other soft parts. He cooked them in the kitchen.
- He separated the skeletons and bagged them too, so has to prevent a foul smell.
- After each murder, he was in a trance-like state. While in the act, he was possessed. He loved killing his victims.
- After that, he did not clean the scene of the accident immediately. It took him some time to regain his composure. How much, he does not know.
- He has no recollection of time or the faces. When the police showed him the victim’s photo, they had to repeat the name several times. Only then would he recall. Even then, he was clueless.
- Throughout the statement, he was calm. It seemed surreal. Did not seem like he was talking about murder.
- The only time you could sense anger in his voice was when he described killing ‘Payal’ the prostitute.
“ She had sex several times with boss and his friends. She rejected me. I could not take it. I pulled her hair until she screamed. I tried to force myself into her. When she did not listen, I strangled her with a rope. She was still gasping for breath when I rammed myself into her. She still resisted. Her screams gave me a high. I cut off her head and bagged it. After that, I had sex with her dead body. I cut off parts of her soft flesh and cooked them.
What part did you cook?
I ate her breasts. That I remember. I must have eaten other parts too. But the breasts, I remember clearly.
- In the entire statement, Koli did not accuse Pandher to be present during the killings. He has since known to have changed his statement. Koli’s wife and two children continue to live in Nithari’s slums.
After transcribing his account, I did not enter the transcription room for the entire year I worked at that news channel.
I could not sleep for a week.
Even today, if I have to go onto that floor, I would have nightmares.
Transcribing this account was worse than witnessing death in person as the nurse I am now.
About 60,000 children disappear across the country every year. In the capital, the number is five a day. Most are forced into illegal work.
Sources
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