Special CBI Judge Rama Jain gave the directive after going through the statement of Nand Lal, father of 26-year-old Payal, the first victim in the serial killings unearthed late last year.

The court directed CBI to slap charges against Pandher under Sections 302, 376, 201, 102(b) — for murder, rape, criminal conspiracy, and destruction of evidence.

CBI chargesheets so far had not leveled murder charges against Pandher — his domestic help Surinder Koli has been charged with the killings.

But today’s order has “virtually brought Pandher and Koli on the same platform”, prosecution lawyer Khalid Khan said.

The orders were passed in the Payal murder case — CBI had filed its first chargesheet in this case. The orders were issued after Nand Lal made his statement in court. He said he was present in Pandher’s house (D-5, Sector 31) when the latter admitted during his arrest that he had used an “aree” (knife) to commit the murders.

Today’s order, meanwhile, is expected to prove a ray of hope for the relatives; if charges are proved Pandher might even face capital punishment.

The CBI had earlier cited lack of evidence as reasons for not framing charges against Pandher.

As per the court’s order, charges are to be framed by September 18, and include all evidence, a lot of which was previously omitted on various grounds by CBI. In its first chargesheet, filed on March 22 in the Payal murder case, the probe agency had given a clean chit to Pandher.

Provide evidence
Among evidences that the agency will now have to provide is the case diary of Payal murder case — it was dictated by then Circle Officer of Noida Police Dinesh Yadav, and written by Head Constable Mahesh Chandra Sharma. The Indian Express has a copy of the diary, owned by the late Jatin Sarkar, another key witness and father of victim Pinky. Sarkar, who died recently in Murshidabad, West Bengal, had also claimed that then CO Dinesh Yadav had given him a copy of the diary.

Another key document is the general diary of Sector-20 Police Station, which has jurisdiction over Nithari. The diary, which records daily activities of the police station, is supposed to contain statements of Pandher and Koli after he was investigated by then Sector-20 SHO V P Singh. A report by Tehelka in its June 9 issue had claimed that the diary “carries a description of how Koli carried out at least 15 murders at Pandher’s instance. It also says that both the accused identified many victims from their photographs.”

With these evidences yet to be accepted in final form in the court, the case against Pandher is expected to grow stronger after chargesheets are filed and evidences presented (or argued on, which is acceptable).

Meanwhile, Dinesh Yadav, CO of Noida Police when the case became public, and B P Singh Yadav, Sector-20 SHO till December 29, 2006, have obtained stay orders from the Allahabad High Court on orders issued against them by the Ghaziabad court.

The order was presented in court today and Dinesh Yadav has been given two weeks’ time; B P Singh Yadav has been directed to be present in court on September 17.

Yadav had allegedly burnt evidence on January 3.