Nithari killings: Man gets 3.5 years in jail for perjury

NOIDA: A Ghaziabad court hearing a Nithari killings case sentenced a complainant to three years and six months in jail for testifying against Moninder Singh Pandher and then changing his statement in 2007.Nand Lal, whose daughter was among those killed, was convicted for perjury, and the quantum of the punishment was announced on Tuesday. Apart from the jail term, he was also fined Rs 20,000.Ravi Shankar Gupta, the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM), said, “He is sentenced for three years and six months under Section 199 (false statement made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence) of the IPC and fined Rs 10,000. He is also fined Rs 10,000 under Section 193 (false evidence) of the IPC. The convict will serve three months of additional imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine.” Both the sentences will run concurrently.The court then said that Nand Lal had changed his statement in court, which it dubbed a “very serious matter”. “It is the responsibility of the person to present the facts before a court. The prosecution lawyer argued that due to the change in his statement, Pandher escaped with less punishment in this case,” it said. The court also said that if the change in statement led to “undue advantage of an accused”, this “goes against humanity and society”.Khalid Khan, the prosecution lawyer who had represented Nand Lal initially, said he had lodged a police complaint in May 2006 that his daughter was missing. The police had launched a search and found skeletons from Pandher’s bungalow. Pandher was arrested along with Surinder Koli, his gardener.The woman’s mobile phone was found in Koli’s possession. The police had also recovered her sandals, clothes, etc. from a drain near Pandher’s bungalow.On June 7, 2007, Nand Lal had told the former CBI special judge in Ghaziabad, Rama Jain, that he had seen Pandher’s manager giving a bundle of notes to a Noida police officer. Nand Lal also said that an axe was recovered from Pandher’s bungalow. Based on Nand Lal’s statement, Pandher was made a co-accused in the case. However, on November 15, 2007, Nand Lal changed his statement and said that he did not know Pandher’s manager and the axe was not recovered in his presence.