Many holes in police story, cover-up seen

Lalit Kumar / TNN / Jan 4, 2007, 03:59 IST

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Cops claim kids killed only in past 16 months but doctor says bones are 3 months to 3 yrs old.

Many holes in police story, cover-up seen

NOIDA: That the Noida police has been callous and inefficient and concealed a lot of facts about the Nithari case is now becoming increasingly evident.
With serial killers Moninder Singh and Surendra having identified only 12 of their victims so far, the police are claiming that the killings took place in a period of only 16 months. The basis for this claim is their confession that their first victim was slaughtered on June 4, 2005, and the last on October 25, 2006.
They say the first was five-year-old Payal and the last eight-year-old Aarti. "'These are really the first and last cases," a senior police officer claimed on Saturday. "We will get DNA tests done to identify the remains and not just take the word of the accused at face value."
But, even on August 30, 2005, when the then Noida police chief, Piyush Mordia, was summoned to the National Commission for Women, at least a dozen children were missing from Nithari. What about them? And, what of parents like Radhey Shyam, who say their children disappeared three to four years ago?

In the official time-span of their killing spree, the two had killed at the rate of two women or children every month. Why they would stop killing after October 25 is anybody's guess? Did they know the police were on to them?
The police have also claimed they learnt about Surendra from the recovery of Payal's (another victim and not the child) mobile phone from him on Friday. The villagers have, however, insisted that they called in the police after they found the children's remains.

Also, a Noida court had on September 27 ordered a report to be filed against the two accused. And, even the high court had declined to quash the report. Actually, the police knew about the connection to number D-5 days after Payal was killed.
A doctor who examined the victims' remains disclosed that "the bones recovered are approximately three months to three years old. We will have more exact details after further tests are conducted."
The police are also unable to explain why they never let the media even photograph the accused. This is in stark contrast to the Anant kidnapping case when they let reporters interview the accused?
Reacting to the allegation that there seemed to be a cover-up, a senior cop said: "We have ordered brainmapping of the accused. Everything will be revealed in that. We are hiding nothing. But, some things we cannot reveal at this stage."
Meanwhile, the action against 12 cops two inspectors and four sub-inspectors were dismissed and six, including circle officer Sewak Ram Yadav, additional SP Saumitra Yadav and the then SSP Piyush Mordia in Lucknow was taken on the basis of a report submitted by a two-member fact-finding committee comprising of secretary, home, Arun Kumar Sinha, and ADG (law and order) AC Sharma, constituted by the state government to look into the Noida killings.
The report was submitted to the chief secretary earlier on Wednesday evening.
Chief Secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpei, in the presence of principal secretary, home, Satish Kumar Agarwal, and director general of police, Bua Singh, said the report had held all these officers prima facie guilty of laxity in handling the case.
The chief secretary said the state government had increased the compensation amount for the families of the murdered children from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

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