Special CBI judge Rama Jain said the crimes committed by 55-year-old Pandher and 38-year-old Koli were the “rarest of rare”, deserving capital punishment.

While Khalid Khan, the counsel of the victim’s family, called the verdict a “slap on the face of the CBI” which had given a clean chit to Pandher, the businessman’s son Karandeep Singh said his father was innocent and he would appeal against the judgement in the Allahabad High Court.

In a statement, the CBI said it was satisfied with the judgement pronounced against Koli but further action in Pandher’s case, if any, would be taken only after examining the judgement and on the basis of legal advice.

“When the first incident of abduction, rape and murder of Rimpa Haldar took place on February 8, 2005, Pandher was out of the country in Australia. The opinion formed by the CBI in all the 16 cases was based on legally admissible evidence and result of investigation,” said the CBI.

In 16 of the 19 chargesheets filed so far, Pandher, the CBI said, had been made accused in one case relating to a girl Payal who used to visit his place in Nithari.

He was chargesheeted for immoral trafficking, bribery, giving gifts to police officers to save himself and his reputation, the CBI said.

On Page 3 of the chargesheet of March 22, 2007, the CBI, to a question whether it had any “special remarks” for not charging Pandher for the rape and murder of Rimpa, says: “There is no evidence against him regarding involvement in this crime”.

Later, in the 23rd paragraph of the chargesheet, the CBI states that investigations revealed Koli was the sole hand behind the death of Rimpa. Pandher, the agency says, was not even in India on the day the girl went missing.

“Investigation has revealed that JCB organized an annual conference of its dealers in Gold Coast Australia from February 1 to 4 of 2005,” the chargesheet says. “On January 30, 2005 accused Moninder Singh Pandher left IGI Airport New Delhi by flight no.SQ 407 for Australia and reached there on 31.1.2005.”

According to the CBI, Pandher left Australia on February 14 and reached IGI Airport, New Delhi, only the next day — almost a week after Rimpa disappeared. “The above journey has also been confirmed by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, New Delhi vide its letter dated 16.4.2007. The immigration stamps affixed on his passport at IGI Airport and Australia also establish his departure and arrival at the places mentioned above,” the CBI said.

The CBI closed its probe on Pandher with the conclusion that “it therefore establishes that on February 8, 2005 accused Moninder Singh Pandher was not present at the place of occurrence when Rimpa Haldar was abducted, raped and murdered by accused Surinder Koli when he was alone in the house.

Judge Rama Jain relied on two pieces of evidence against Pandher — the “strong belief” nurtured by Dolly Haldar, Rimpa’s mother, of the guilt of the “house owner”, and later, the confession made by Koli against his master before Metropolitan Magistrate Chandra Shekhar of Delhi.

The statement alludes to Pandher in several instances, including how one day he had come home from work when the body of another victim was lying in the bathroom. In another instance, Koli says that Pandher did not comment when he saw victim Payal’s mobile phone in his hands. Koli had taken the girl’s phone after killing her.

To the CBI’s “no” on suspicions against Pandher, Judge Jain reasoned that the killings, and “so many of these deaths”, took place inside the house. Body pieces were packed in polythene bags and thrown in the drain behind the house — “How is it that the person living in the house (D 5, Sector 31) did not know about these happenings?”

“The next killing would take place before the body parts of the previous murder victim were disposed off... the murders of females or minors were committed within a space of a month or two of each other,” the judge said, “so many body parts were found... the house resembled a slaughterhouse.”

In her 59-page judgment, the judge quoted “circumstantial evidence” against Pandher to award him the “rarest of rare” punishment. “The case has to be seen holistically. The circumstantial evidence forms an unbreakable chain of events,” she observed.