Moninder Singh Pandher (Nithari Case)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Moninder Singh Pandher

• Moninder Singh Pandher grew up in an affluent business-class family in Chandigarh.

• He was an average student in his school days.

• According to some of his relatives, Moninder had a troubled childhood and was a loner. However, his batchmates revealed that he was an ordinary boy.

• Growing up, Moninder had bitter fights with his siblings.

• His mother passed away when he was too young and he was raised by his father, who was a womanizer.

  

• After his mother’s demise, his father was involved with several women. One of them was Jasmer Kaur, who lived at their family home in Chandigarh till his father’s death. His father even willed some of his properties in her name.

• After completing his graduation, Moninder inherited his family’s trucking and transport business.

• For many years, he lived with his family in their Chandigarh house. However, the atmosphere at their home was very odd. In a media conversation, one of his family members said,
  

  Even though we were all living under one roof for many years, we hardly ever communicated with each other or had meals together. It was very odd.”

• In 2001, Pandher, along with his wife and son, moved to Noida, where he first lived at a rented apartment and later in March 2004, he bought a luxury house in Noida.

• In June 2005, Moninder’s wife and son moved back to their home in Chandigarh to look after her ailing father-in-law. She, however, continued living in Chandigarh even after her father-in-law’s demise.

• Although earlier, Moninder used to frequently used to visit his family in Chandigarh, he limited his visits with time.

• According to some of their relatives, Moninder’s wife had some serious issues with him. One of his relatives once revealed,
  

  It is much more than a tiff. Perhaps she saw or sensed something which she could not stomach.”

• After his father’s demise, Moninder had a tiff with his siblings over the property as his elder brother Iqbal Singh and his sister Manjit Kochhar were disinherited in their father’s will. They believed that Moninder had fabricated the will to take up all his father’s wealth.

• Once, while he was attending the wedding reception of one of his nephews in Chandigarh, he got so angry to see his brother’s family that began shouting at them. He soon left the reception.

• According to his family members, Moninder failed as a businessman as he ran down his father’s transport business from 200 trucks to 25 trucks.

• Moninder is well-known in his family for his drinking habits. He had a huge collection of vintage wine and whiskey in his cellar at his Noida’s house.

• Apparently, everyone in his family knew about his womanising ways. Once, his son Karan admitted that he used to bring call girls to his Noida’s house frequently. He said,
  

  He was alone there so he may have brought girls there.”

• In December 2006, Moninder Singh Pandher, along with his servant Surinder Koli, was accused of gruesome murders and rapes of around 16 young girls.

• The matter came to the light when the body parts of two children, who were earlier reported to be missing, were found in a drain near Pandher’s house by two villagers, who informed the police about it.

• After the matter came to the light, neither his wife nor his siblings, tried meeting him. None of them supported him in the matter.

• During the initial interrogation, Moninder said that he was mostly out for his work and he had no idea about the crimes done by his servant Surinder Koli.

• In front of the police, he always maintained that he was a lonely man. However, he never provided any details about why he indulged in those crimes.

• There were clashes between the people of the Nithari village and the police as the villagers claimed that the police was trying to cover up the criminals.

• Reportedly, Moninder Pandher gave Rs. 2.5 lakh to a gazetted rank officer to wave off his name from the case in which he was involved in the disappearance of children from the Nithari village.

• Later, an inquiry committee was established to look into the case, which was then transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

  

• In 2009, the Directorate of Forensic Sciences (DFS) laboratory conducted brain mapping and narco-analysis tests on Koli and Pandher.

• During the tests, Moninder admitted that he was estranged to his wife because his wife refused to fulfil many of his sexual demands. He said that he often asked his wife to participate in sexual orgies involving multiple women, which she did not accept.

• CBI ruled that although Moninder Singh Pandher had no direct involvement in the murders, he was found guilty of engaging in prostitution and destroying evidence. However, the CBI could not verify if Pandher was aware of Surinder’s crimes. Pandher’s alibi stated that he was often away from the house.

• In February 2009, Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher were given death sentences as they were found guilty of the murder of Rimpa Haldar. The case was considered to be the “rarest of the rare.”

• During the interrogation, his servant, Surinder Koli, revealed that two doctors named Dr Agarwal and Dr Naveen Chaudhary were involved in organ trafficking and he was being framed to save Pandher.

• A psychologist who was working on the case revealed that Moninder may have developed perverse tendencies much earlier in life. He said,
  

  There are definite pathways people take to become deviant or diabolical. It would normally take 25-30 years for a person to reach the stage where Pandher is. He had become too confident that he could get away with anything, even throwing the bodies in the drain.’’

• The police claimed that Moninder lived a life of luxury. He had fancy furniture in his house. The police seized laptops and CDs from his house, which allegedly contained Pandher’s pictures with nude children.

• During his leisure time, he often played golf and read horror stories.

• He loves travelling and has visited various countries including Los Angeles, Switzerland, Dubai, Canada and China.

• The house where Pandher lived before his arrest is a double-storey bungalow. While Moninder lived on the ground floor, his servant Surinder Koli lived on the first floor.

• In 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted both Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher due to lack of evidence.

• The house where he used to live is now considered to be “haunted” and people avoid going near the area. Fans, TVs, ACs, and the house’s gate had been stolen over the years.

  

• In 2012, a BBC documentary titled Slumdog Cannibal was released which was based on the Nithari killings.

• In 2016, a Netflix documentary based on the case was released under the title The Karma Killings.

  

• The case was also featured in Anirban Bhattacharyya’s book The Deadly Dozen: India’s Most Notorious Serial Killers.

• The case was also featured in a few podcasts including The Desi Crime Podcast, RedHanded, and Village of the Damned: The Nithari Child Murders.

• The Bollywood film ‘Murder 2’ (2011), starring Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandez, is also based on this case.

• In September 2024, a Netflix series titled Sector 36, based on the Nithari Killings, was released.