337: The Most Disturbing & Gruesome Case I’ve Covered | Noida Murders

Summary

Serialously with Annie Elise – Episode 337

"The Most Disturbing & Gruesome Case I’ve Covered | Noida Murders"

Release Date: November 17, 2025
Host: Annie Elise
Topic: Deep-dive into the Noida/Nithari serial murders of 2005–2006 in India, a case involving missing children, shocking police failures, and chilling confessions—ultimately exploring whether justice was truly served.

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Episode Overview

Annie Elise takes listeners through what she calls "the most disturbing and gruesome case" she has ever covered: the Noida (Nithari) murders, which surfaced in the mid-2000s in India. Children and young women from a marginalized community vanished near a wealthy neighborhood, their disappearances long ignored or dismissed by local police. Eventually, horrifying discoveries pointed to an unimaginable crime—but decades later, lingering doubts and reversals in court have left survivors, families, and the broader public wondering if the perpetrators have truly faced justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Nithari and Noida

[03:54–08:02]

• Nithari: Densely populated, working-class, poverty-stricken area outside New Delhi; common for residents to work in nearby, wealthy Noida.
• Children from Nithari frequently entered Noida for errands or work; their disappearances were often last traced to this neighborhood.
• Multiple families began comparing stories, revealing a chilling pattern.

Quote:

"Each time a child disappeared, their last known location was almost always the same. They were in Noida... and then it was just nothing. No calls, no sightings, no returning. Just vanished."
— Annie Elise [05:34]

2. Police Inaction and Community Frustration

[08:03–13:37]

• Repeated reporting by distraught families led nowhere; police frequently accused families of overreacting or fabricated stories of elopement, abuse, or runaway children.
• Widespread perception in Nithari that police bias against the poor and coziness with the affluent ensured their complaints were dismissed.
• Families resorted to their own search efforts after losing faith in authorities.

Quote:

"You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see it either. The police straight up ignored the concerns of these families."
— Annie Elise [08:03]

3. The Breakthrough: Gruesome Discovery

[16:50–23:00]

• Focus zeroed in on the residence of Moninder Singh Pandher and his house manager, Surinder Koli, after local rumors surfaced about body parts in a storm drain.
• Families searched the area and personally discovered human remains, sparking a police investigation and intense public outrage.
• The scene provoked community chaos and anger as residents’ worst suspicions materialized.

Quote:

"They found more body parts—hands, arms, skulls, bone fragments, even pieces of clothing..."
— Annie Elise [18:47]

Memorable Moment:

• Parents, desperate for answers, stood by the drains holding pictures of their missing children, hoping to identify remains—"a true living nightmare."

— Annie Elise [20:44]

4. Unmasking the Suspects: Moninder & Surinder

[23:00–33:54]

• Moninder: Wealthy, influential businessman; Surinder: His reclusive, long-serving house manager.
• Both arrested after human remains were found on their property.
• Public narrative painted Moninder as a privileged, debauched villain, yet confessions and evidence were muddled.

Notable Insights:

• The possibility of organ trafficking rose when it was learned a neighbor was a doctor previously linked to medical crime, and bodies showed surgical precision in dismemberment.
• Ultimately, this angle was investigated but dismissed for lack of evidence.

5. The Investigation—Confessions, Evidence, and Controversy

[33:54–48:55]

• House described as a “house of horrors”—dirty, chaotic, with remains hidden throughout.
• Surrender underwent narcoanalysis (“truth serum”) and confessed in graphic detail to luring, murdering, sexually assaulting, dismembering, and even cannibalizing victims.
• Claimed to have acted alone but later implicated Moninder and recanted his confession, alleging police coercion.
• Police procedural failures highlighted, including ignored files and officers suspended for gross negligence.

Quote:

"He then revealed that before dismembering some of the bodies, he would sexually assault their corpse ... and in a few cases, even claimed to have cooked and eaten parts of the victims, including the breast of one of the women, the liver of a child, and the arm of another child. It is so sick."
— Annie Elise [39:50]

6. Trials, Reversals, and Ongoing Doubts

[50:15–62:48]

• Media and public largely blamed Moninder; his family defended him as a victim of a smear campaign.
• Trials dragged across years; initial convictions (including death sentences) for both, but courts gradually ruled evidence circumstantial, confessions inadmissible, and finally acquitted Moninder and reduced Surinder's penalty.
• Public outrage exploded with these reversals; families devastated, believing justice evaded.
• Legal experts and commentators questioned the shoddy investigations, lack of forensic evidence, and the unreliability of confessional statements, especially those obtained by “truth serum”.

Quote:

"To them, these cases felt cut and dry ... But now, new questions were surfacing all over again."
— Annie Elise [60:55]

7. Lingering Mystery and Injustice

[62:48–65:47]

• 38 children reported missing during the wave, but only 19 bodies recovered.
• Surgical dismemberment and timeline discrepancies fuel theories of organ trafficking, more perpetrators, or a cover-up.
• Allegations that Moninder’s wealth and connections protected him arise repeatedly.
• Families refused government compensation, demanding real justice and answers.

Quote:

"Whether or not you believe Surrender acted alone or you think there is more to this story... one thing is very clear: the people who were supposed to protect this community failed. And that failure will always be a stain on this case."
— Annie Elise [65:47]

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Sections & Timestamps

• [03:54–08:02] – Background: Nithari, Noida, and the web of missing children
• [08:03–13:37] – Police negligence and the community’s proactive, desperate search
• [16:50–23:00] – The grisly discovery and neighborhood panic
• [23:00–33:54] – Suspects, local rumors, police suspicions, and new angles (organ trade)
• [33:54–48:55] – The investigation: Evidence, confessions, chaos, and new speculation
• [50:15–62:48] – Judicial process: Media portrayal, trial outcomes, reversals, and controversial acquittal
• [62:48–65:47] – Aftermath: Lingering doubts, missing children, public pain and lack of closure

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Notable Quotes

• "People felt like, yet again, another example of a powerful man getting away with everything while somebody else took the fall."
  — Annie Elise [50:15]

• "It involved the discovery of multiple human remains in and around Moninder Singh Pandher's residence in Noida… The grisly details of the case sent shockwaves across the country."
  — News Reporter [64:28]

• "They wanted somebody to be held responsible too. And in their eyes, nobody had been."
  — Annie Elise [64:08]

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Memorable Moments

• The community gathering at the drain with photos of their missing loved ones, hoping for answers but dreading confirmation of their worst fears.
  — [20:44]

• The revelation that surgical precision was used in dismemberment, sparking speculation of possible involvement of a rogue medical professional or an organ trafficking ring.
  — [35:29]

• The emotional toll and heartbreak in Nitari as families realize that, after years of struggle, almost no one has been held accountable, and justice feels hollow.
  — [62:48–65:47]

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Conclusion & Host's Reflections

Annie closes the episode by reflecting on the enduring sense of injustice:

"Was justice served here, or do you think something bigger was buried along the way? ... The people who were supposed to protect this community failed."
— Annie Elise [65:47]

She encourages listeners to ponder the possibility of deeper corruption, cover-ups, or uninvestigated angles, and invites ongoing discussion in the podcast’s comment sections.

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For Listeners

This episode offers an emotionally charged, thoroughly detailed retelling of one of India's most infamous true crime stories—highlighting systemic failures, chilling revelations, and the haunting lack of closure for affected families. It balances sensitivity and depth, making it a powerful listen for anyone interested in justice, investigative failures, and the harrowing realities behind international headlines.

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Note: Ads, intros, and outros were omitted from this summary per instructions.

Transcript

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Book [e-mail] In 2005, two girls went missing from an area of Denny. This was a man who came from.

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One world and left for another. He found that the world he entered was full of depravity.

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It's a moment not just of utter panic, but what do you do? Your child's gone missing. You can't find it.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of serial asleep. In 2004, something unsettling started happening in Nitari, a very densely populated working class neighborhood just outside of New Delhi in northern India. Children were disappearing. Now, at first, it didn't seem connected. A young boy left home to run an errand and didn't come back. Then a few weeks later, a girl vanished on her way to market. Months would pass, then another child would disappear. The point being, it wasn't frequent enough to cause immediate panic, but it was just enough to make families feel like something was off. Now, each case on its own, was treated like an unfortunate and isolated event. Again, not connected. But as the months dragged on, families in the neighborhood started comparing stories. They started talking about the similarities. And it became too much to ignore. The same age range, the same type of errands. And slowly, what once felt like a series of coincidences started to look more like a pattern. So parents did what anyone would do. They went to the police, they asked for help, they filed reports, and they begged officers to take their concerns seriously. But instead of launching searches or asking questions, the police just told them not to worry, that their children had probably just run away. You know, they'd be back soon. Just calm down. Nothing to worry about. But the kids didn't come back. And the police still didn't act. Then, as more and more children began to disappear in Nitari, that fear started growing into frustration, then into anger. These weren't one off incidents. This was something bigger. And while all of these families were just continuously being ignored, something far more sinister was quietly unfolding just down the road. And when the truth finally came out, it exposed one of the most disturbing criminal cases that India has ever seen one that would shock the country. It would dominate the headlines for years. And even still to this day, it leaves people with questions. Because after all of that time, it may not have been as open and shut as it once seemed. New details have since emerged. And now, nearly two decades later, the families are asking, did the real killer ever face justice? Or did everybody just have it completely wrong from the very beginning? This is the story of the Noida Nytari murders. Hi, true crime bestie. It's me, your host, Annie Elise. Thank you for listening today and we are going to jump right in. Noida and Netari are two neighborhoods just right outside of New Delhi. Now, on a map, they sit only a few blocks apart, but in reality, they could not have been more different. Noida was a quiet, clean, upper class neighborhood. I mean, think gated homes, private security guards, wide roads, manicured lawns, great schools, access to healthcare, all sorts of other resources too. And Noida by all means, was a great place to live. It was safe, it was comfortable. But Netari just down the road was nothing like that. It was densely packed, it was dusty. It was made up of small one room homes, this very narrow, crowded lane. And many of the families in Natari lived paycheck to paycheck. Most people worked low wage jobs, selling vegetables, cleaning houses, driving rickshaws, picking up whatever work that they could find. Power outages were also pretty common. Clean water wasn't ever guaranteed, and access to health care was always hit or miss depending on the day. Yet despite their differences, there was constant movement between the two neighborhoods. See, many of the people in Nitari worked over in Noida. They would do the cooking, the cleaning, housework for all the wealthier families who lived there.

[Co-host/Advertiser]

So there was quite a bit of.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

Back and forth and crossover. It also wasn't unusual for their kids to tag along either just to help out or stop by during the day. And even beyond that, Noida had things that Nytari didn't. Better shops, more reliable pharmacies, more chances to earn a little extra money. So it was normal to see children and teens from Nitari walking into Noida all throughout the day. That back and forth, it just happened constantly. And we're talking about a very densely populated area. I'm talking tens of thousands of people. But when families in Neari started to take a closer look at the growing number of children missing, they realized something very unsettling. Because each time a child disappeared, their last known location was almost always the same. They were in Noida different days. Different kids, but there definitely was a pattern there. Each one had crossed over into that wealthier neighborhood for one reason or another. And then it was just nothing. No calls, no sightings, no returning, Just vanished. And this pattern made things even scarier because it made it seem like these weren't just tragic accidents. People started to think that somebody who lived near them, maybe somebody in that wealthier neighborhood, someone they could be walking past every single day, was really targeting their children. Now, like I said, parents had started going to the police as soon as these disappearances began. When the first few kids went missing, families did exactly what anybody would do. They reported it. They gave names, dates, last known locations. They were asking for help, just searching everywhere, but the police did absolutely nothing. They brushed these families off. They told them, you know, you're just overreacting. Your kids will come back eventually. And in most cases, the police didn't even file a single report. Still, though, the families kept going back to the police. And as more children disappeared and the connection between those cases all started to become clear, and they just went back again and again. This time, they would be pointing out the pattern. They would be explaining how every child had gone missing after entering noida. It wasn't just one family complaining either. It was many. And they were all saying the exact same thing for over two years straight, saying, our children are missing. Why aren't you doing anything about it? And we are talking about over 10 missing children at this point, with all of these similarities, all of these commonalities, like, why is nothing being done? But even after two years of this, the police didn't listen. They didn't investigate. They didn't organize searches, they didn't send out alerts. They didn't even follow up with more questions. So the families, of course, felt like they were just actively being ignored. Now, this also wasn't necessarily surprising for the people in netari, because it was widely known that the local police force, ironically, was not exactly law abiding. The officers were known to be very close to wealthy Noida residents and also very wealthy Noida business owners. So their bias against nitari residents seemed pretty obvious. So naturally, nytari families felt like the reason that the police weren't helping them was basically because they were poor, because they weren't a part of that wealthy community.

[Co-host/Advertiser]

And, I mean, you really don't have.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

To be a conspiracy theorist to see it either. The police straight up ignored the concerns of these families. They told them that their children had probably just run away because they were angry after a fight that it was nothing to overreact to. They even at times would blame the parents, saying that they must have been abusive, that they claimed, you know, the children probably ran away because they were scared of you. And when older girls went missing, police claimed that these girls weren't actually missing at all. Instead, they claimed that these girls had eloped. Even if the girls didn't have a boyfriend at the time, the police would just make up these stories saying, no, no, no, the girls left home willingly. They. They probably went with a boyfriend. They probably just ran off to go get married. They would tell the parents, you know, don't worry, the kids would come back on their own. It's nothing to fear, nothing to overreact to. I mean, what. But these parents knew that this wasn't true. They knew their kids, they knew their routines, and they knew what was and was not normal. So they continued to beg the police for help, but the police still refused to act. And as more and more children continued to disappear, the. The families just finally, ultimately gave up thinking that the police would ever be helpful. So they decided that they needed to act for themselves. They walked the neighborhood on foot, retracing their children's last known steps. They checked alleyways, side roads, empty lots, anywhere that a child could have wandered to. They knocked on doors. They talked to anybody who might have seen something. I mean, neighbors, shopkeepers, street vendors, schoolmates, you name it. And some families even went so far as to travel to other nearby neighborhoods and train stations, thinking, you know, maybe their child had gotten lost or accidentally ended up somewhere unfamiliar. But every search always ended up the zero answers and zero direction of where to look next. So the longer that this went on, the more hopeless these families began to feel. And by 2006, over 20 children had gone missing. And despite all of the efforts of these families, nothing changed. No one had been found, no suspects had been named, no leads were publicly shared, and essentially there was no investigation into any of these disappearances. Now, among those 20 children missing, two were young girls. A 10 year old girl named Jyoti and a 9 year old girl named Rachna. Now, in April 2006, Rachna had gone out to go visit her grandparents. Then she was going to go run a few errands for her parents in Noida. It was something that she did very frequently, and she always returned home before it got too dark. But hours passed and she never returned. So her parents filed a police report, but they never received any help. Jyoti had also been in Noida when she was last seen. So the families of these two girls knew each other. And when neither of them received help from the police, they started to help one another, because they really could only turn to each other. They searched. They searched. And Arachna's father went all around Noida, asking if anybody had seen his daughter on the day that she went missing. He started right near a tailor shop, which was one of the places that Rachna was visiting the day that she disappeared. And right across that tailor shop was a very large house, and it had two men just standing outside, talking to one another. So Rachna's father approached these two men, asked if either one of them had seen his daughter, but both men said no. And then they quickly shuffled inside. And something about the way that they responded just felt very off to Rachna's dad. It was almost like they seemingly were running away from the conversation, like they wanted nothing to do with her father, that they couldn't get away from this conversation quick enough. And that moment really stuck with him. And over the next few days, as he continued to search, his attention just kept circling back to that house that those two men were standing out front of. And by talking with Jyoti's family, he discovered that Jyoti had also passed that exact same house on the day that she disappeared. So this, of course, only fueled his suspicion. So both Jyoti and Rachna's fathers went to the police with this information, hoping, you know, having this story of these suspicious men, the coincidence of them both passing this same house, that all of that would make the police take their concerns seriously for once, right? A lead, evidence, something, at least go question them. But once again, the police brushed them off, and they did nothing. So then the fathers reached out to somebody else that they hoped could help them. A man named S.C. mishra. Mishra had previously served as the head of their local neighborhood welfare association, a group that worked for the rights of the people in Nitari. The association helped organize basic services or even advocate for neighborhood needs. So because of this, Mishra knew a lot of people in the community. He also had dealt with a lot of local officials before, too. So it seemed like he understood how things worked and might actually be able to help. But unfortunately, even he couldn't convince the police to take action. But what Mishra did have was access to something else. Local gossip. And recently, he had heard something that made his stomach turn. He had heard rumors that body parts had been seen floating in the open drains of Noida, specifically near that home that was right across from the tailor shop, that same house that Rachna's father allegedly already thought was suspicious. And if the rumors were true, if there truly were body parts that had been stuffed near that house, the nightmare in Nytari was about to get a whole lot worse. It's about to be Black Friday.

[Co-host/Advertiser]

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[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

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[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

So that house, the one that was directly across from the tailor shop, it belonged to a man named Moninder Singh Pandir. Now Mo Ninder was in his 50s and he came from a very wealthy, very well connected family. He had inherited this very successful transportation business and he owned several homes across India. He was also married and had a teenage son. Yet for whatever reason his wife and his son did not live with him. So he spent a good amount of time at his place in Noida. Now I'm about to play a 35 second clip about him which this clip also shows some photos of him, you know, where he went to school, his son, some moments throughout his life. So as a reminder, if you're listening to the audio version of this, you could definitely go over to the YouTube version of this later on and check out the visuals if you're interested.

[Narrator/Documentary Voice]

Born in August 1957, Pander Goldie to friends studied at Simla's elite Bishop Cotton and was a history graduate from Delhi St Stephen's College. Pander inherited a single successful transport business spread across Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. He married Davinder Kaur and then had a son Karandeep who went on to study in Canada. The Panders bought a double storied bungalow in Noira Sector 31 in March 2004. Muninder Singh Pander spent most of his time there while his wife stayed back in Jadigarh.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

Now Muninder also had a domestic worker, otherwise here in the States known as, you know, a housekeeper or a house manager. And this was a man in his 30s named Surinder Kohli. Sarinder was married, had two children, managed all of the household chores and he handled maintenance, looked after the house whenever Moninder was away. And he was just kind of like the house manager of sorts, he was the eyes and ears of everything and just managed all of the chores. He was hired in early 2004 and he wasn't a very talkative person, but he was regularly seen outside of the house just, just sweeping the sidewalks, taking out the trash, and, you know, running errands. So to most people, the two men were unassuming, they were quiet, they were familiar to the neighborhood, but overall pretty ordinary. However, these were also the two men that Rachna's father had talked to that day out front of the house. The ones that he said gave him a weird vibe that he felt like they were trying to get away from the conversation as quickly as possible. Now, as far fetched as it sounded, the rumor that somebody had actually seen body parts outside of Moninder's home, it really was more than anything else that the families had to go on. That was the only real lead that they had. And at that point they were willing to follow up on just about anything. So on the morning of December 29, 2006, the two fathers and SC Mishra decided that they were going to go check out that area for themselves, do their own little investigation. Now, in this part of Noida, the storm drains aren't like what you might be picturing. They weren't like the typical underground covered sewer system like we have in the U.S. kind of, you know, from that movie it with the clown, how it's like that storm drain and everything's below. That's not how it is. Instead, these drains are very long. They are like open trenches that run alongside the roads. They collect runoff, trash, food, waste, and in many places they hadn't been cleaned in months. So when the group reached the section of drain that was right outside of Moninder's house, the smell, the odor, it hit them almost immediately. The water was barely moving. There was garbage everywhere. And while there was, yes, a huge amount of trash, the odor was still very off. Something didn't quite smell like this was just your typical garbage. Even like New York City where it's hot garbage in the street, something was stronger here. So the three men started searching right away. They leaned over the edge of this drain, scanning the surface, kind of looking for anything unusual. And after about 30 minutes, they found something. One of the fathers spotted a severed hand floating in the water. It was also partially decomposed and it was tangled inside all of that garbage that had been collected on top of the drain. And this hand, it was very small in size. It looked like the size of a Hand that belonged to a child. So this was a horrifying discovery. They stopped searching and immediately called the police, hoping that now, finally, this. It would be enough for them to take things seriously. And sure enough, a short time later, officers arrived. The same officers that these families had been begging for help from for years. But by the time the police got there, residents from both Noida and Nytari had all gathered around the drain, and they were all digging through the trash collectively. And while they were doing that, they found more body parts. Hands, arms, skulls, bone fragments, even pieces of clothing, which it all seems crazy, right? Because given how many children had gone missing and nobody had noticed any of this stuff before, which I will get into that in just a moment. Don't worry. So the police roped off the area, and then they took over the search. Yet that, of course, didn't stop people from surrounding the area, watching, trying to see what else the police would uncover. The search went on for the next few days, and as time went on, the surrounding crowd just grew angrier and angrier. Most of the crowd consisted of residents from nitari, people who knew that for the past few years, they had been telling the police about all of these missing children, Constantly begging for help, asking for an investigation, telling them something was wrong, and it just was being completely ignored. So as they were witnessing the police just pulling out more and more body parts out of this drain, they just grew even more furious, wondering if all of this could have been prevented. People even started verbally harassing the investigators, even throwing stones at them. Many of them also brought photos of their children or descriptions of the clothing that they were last seen in, trying to see if these bodies that were being found matched their children, which can you imagine that for a moment, witnessing for days on end, this drain, this open, garbage collected drain just being sifted through, and you'd finding body parts and clothing and just standing there as a parent, wondering where your missing child is, praying for answers, but also praying that they don't pull out your child's shirt or your child's head or your child's little arm. And it has to be a true living nightmare. I cannot even imagine what goes through somebody's mind during those moments now, because they were all just so combative and so angry and so furious. It got bad enough that the police had to come and try and contain all of them, but this, of course, just made the onlookers even angrier. So much so that fights started breaking out. Eventually, though, the police were able to contain the crowd and they were able to successfully block off the area, and they continued their investigation, continued sifting through this drain. Now, all of the body parts that were recovered were from the drain directly in front of Moninder's home. And that naturally put a lot of attention on him. And also the person who worked there full time with him, his domestic worker, house manager, surrender. And as soon as the public learned where these remains had been found, rumors started building around these two men. Some said that surrender had always been a little bit strange. He kept to himself, didn't really interact with neighbors much, but they said that when he did interact, it was usually with kids. People said that the few times that they did see him talk, he was trying to give children candy as they walked past the home. Now, at the time, people didn't really think much of it. Maybe he was just being friendly. It didn't really seem that unusual. But Hindsight is always 2020, and now with body parts being pulled out of the drain just steps away from where he stood every single day, it didn't seem so harmless anymore. It seemed disturbing. And of course, people were also reexamining the image they had of Moninder at this point. Like I mentioned earlier, he was a wealthy, very successful businessman. He came from a good family. He led this life of true luxury. He owned multiple homes and was always in and out of Noida often. And neighbors initially thought of him as quiet, polite. He wasn't particularly social. But when he did interact with people in the neighborhood, he always gave off this kind of grandfatherly type of vibe. But now, after the discovery of the drain, rumors of a darker side to him started swirling throughout the city. Some locals said that he had another side to him that wasn't so innocent. He was rumored to hire sex workers regularly. He was described as a womanizer. And later on, the police even came out with a statement saying that it was their investigation into a missing sex worker that led them to the discovery of the body parts in that drainage. Which I kind of find that interesting, considering it was these other men who went on their own, like, vigilante kind of search, doing their own investigation. But now they were trying to take credit for it, saying that it was their investigation that led them there. But I digress. Just again, trying to give some context as to his background and who he may have been. And let's talk about that investigation and that alleged sex worker. In May of 2006, a young woman named Payal had gone missing. She was in her 20s, and she often spent time in the noida neighborhood, just looking for work. And on May 7, Payal's brother had told her about a potential job opportunity, one at Moninder's home. So that morning, Peyao left to go meet somebody about the job. But the thing was, she never came back. And even though Peyao was technically an adult, she lived at home. So it was very unusual for her to not come home at night. So her family, of course, immediately became concerned. They tried calling Moninder, but it took a while to even get in contact with him. And when they finally did, he said he wasn't in town, that he hadn't even been in town. He had no idea what they were even talking about. Yet he did tell Payal's father that he would talk to surrender. He would check with him and see if he knew anything about it. He even said to call him back the next day, that he would loop him in and give him any information that he learned. But then when Payal's father called him back the following day, Moninder's phone had been turned off and nobody could ever get in contact with him after that. So Payal's family went to the police like so many of these families did. And at first they didn't launch any type of formal investigation, just like they had done with the other families. They just told Payal's family that she had probably run off with a boy. And they really doubled down on this. They claimed that they knew for a fact that Payal ran off to Mumbai, got married and was now happily living a new life all voluntarily. One officer reportedly even went so far as to spread rumors all throughout the town that Payal was fine, that she had no interest in returning. Yet Payal's father refused to accept that. He kept pressuring the police, even showing up at a senior officer's home and causing a huge scene, just trying to do anything to get attention. Desperate. And eventually his persistence paid off. In June of 2006, the police finally agreed to file a formal missing persons report. I mean, they didn't investigate any further still, but at least now there was something on record, there was something documented, but still that wasn't enough for Payal's family and her father. So he took his fight to court and he ended up getting a judge to order the police to investigate. Yet even then they still pushed back, accusing him of making all of this up just as a means to get money. So then Payal's father continued to search on his own. He went to Noida nearly every single day. And then finally, he did meet someone who would give him some answers. A rickshaw driver came forward and said he saw Payal on May 7, the day that she disappeared. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term rickshaw, it's similar to what we may in New York call like a pedicab or like a three wheel cart where you can transport either goods or people and somebody's moving the cart either on by a bicycle or on their own feet, just kind of something like that. So he said that he saw her entering Monitor's home, but that he never saw her leave. He even gave an exact description of the clothing that she was last seen in. And when her father showed the rickshaw driver a picture of Payal, he confirmed that was the girl that he had seen. It wasn't until October of 2006, five months after Payol went missing, that the police really finally started looking into her case. Her phone had been missing this whole time as well. And the police ended up discovering that her SIM card had been deactivated. Now, even though the SIM card had been deactivated, they were able to track down the device itself. And interestingly enough, the person who they saw now using this phone claimed that somebody from Moninder's house had sold that device to him. So according to the police, that discovery was the turning point. They said that this connection to Moninder's home is what led them to begin searching that surrounding area, including that drain out front where all of those body parts and remains were eventually found. So just to give a little bit of context, people were really, really angry with the police for their lack of action over all of these missing children. Yet the police, possibly feeling that they needed to protect their image and their careers, just came back and combated that with like, no, we haven't been ignoring anybody's concerns. We have been looking into some of these missing children. There just wasn't enough evidence to ever suggest that something bad happened to them. So because of that, we didn't investigate any further. The police even went so far as saying that the version of events that are being told by these families, you know, them going on their own, searching these drains, discovering the remains for themselves, that that wasn't true. They insisted that it was their own work that brought them to the scene and they just kind of brushed off the community's versions of events as exaggerated, emotional and driven and fueled by public anger. So after this discovery was made, Moninder and Sarinder were both brought in for questioning. This was on December 26th and 27th of 2006 and as they were taken away for questioning from Monnder's home, the crowd outside just attacked them. Meanwhile, the police extended their search and in doing that they then discovered even more human remains and these remains had been tucked away inside plastic bags and then placed on the property and itself.

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So the police are now searching the house. And it was filthy. When I say house of horrors, I truly mean that from the depths of my soul. This house looked like it had not been cleaned for months. I'm talking dust, trash, dirt, broken things, things spilled over. Just looks almost like. What would you not like a crash house? What would you call it? Like an abandoned house where people who.

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Want to go use drugs or hide.

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Out or meet up for sex work. Oh, it looked not like a true intact house. Some of the human remains that were found inside the house were hidden inside a bathroom. Others were tucked away in corners or other storage areas. But it became increasingly clear that some of these missing children and the young women who went missing had been killed inside this house. And whoever did it had tried to conceal the evidence. So that was enough for the police to arrest both Moninder and Surinder. On December 29. They were accused of abducting, murdering, and then mutilating all sorts of young women and children. Things were pretty quiet for a while after the arrests. Moninder and Surinder were both still in custody. The house was blocked off. Police weren't really saying much. They kept searching the area, especially that drain and the property itself, but there were no immediate updates that were released to the public. So things kind of fell into a bit of a waiting game. Yet behind the scenes, the investigation was still moving. Police continued searching well into January of 2007, and in total, a total of 19 skulls were recovered. Sixteen were intact, while three of them had been damaged. Forensic examiners had determined that all of these bodies had been dismembered, most of them cut into three distinct pieces before then being discarded. I mean, vile subhuman behavior. Who the heck does this, period? But let alone to this many people, it is just so vile and disgusting. So the remains were sent off for DNA testing, and the results showed that 11 of the victims were female and the majority of them were children under the age of 10 years old. The test also said that all of the victims had likely been killed within the previous two years. Still, though, most of the details were kept from the public. Eye. But this, of course, only caused rumors to spread, and these rumors spread very fast. Most people, of course, believed that Monnder and surrender were involved, but not everybody thought that the explanation was as simple as these two men acting alone. And one of the theories that gained a lot of traction in the neighborhood was that the case might involve illegal organ trading. And part of the reason that people latched onto this idea was because of a man who lived right next door to the house. It was a doctor who had also been investigated just a few years earlier for involvement in an organ trade scheme. The details surrounding what really happened are a bit murky, but he worked at a local hospital, and he said that during his time there, there was a case involving a missing kidney. At the time, he was suspected of removing and attempting to sell that kidney. But eventually he was cleared and he was found innocent. There was also a very small pathway that connected this doctor's property to the drain right in front of Moninder's home. A direct and somewhat easy to miss shortcut between the two places. So then people started speculating that maybe the doctor had been the one luring people into his home, removing their organs, disposing of their bodies nearby, and that maybe Moninder and surrender had been helping him do this. Adding to these suspicions was the fact that many of the bodies that had been found dismembered had been dismembered with very careful surgical precision. Many had a cut right between the same two vertebrae, suggesting that the person who did it might have had some medical experience or at least a pretty deep understanding of human anatomy. Still, though, there was no concrete evidence that tied the doctor to any of these murders. Yet. People talk, and this rumor stuck, and it picked up enough traction that the police felt like they needed to look into it further. So they investigated the possible connection, but it was ruled out pretty quickly. They found no evidence to connect the doctor to any of these missing bodies. But still, I will say it was good that they investigated it. I mean, it sucks that the community seemingly has to force the police to investigate all of these leads, but at least they did look into it. So by January, the case had completely blown up. I mean, the number of bodies found, the number of missing kids, the years of inaction, people were furious, and now they wanted somebody held accountable. So pretty quickly, five police officers were immediately taken off the job. They were accused of mishandling early missing persons reports, and they were suspended. Then two more officers were suspended for ignoring multiple warnings about the disappearances. One of them was a high ranking Investigator too. And when officials searched his home, they even found files on the missing children that he had never even looked into. So by this point, public trust into the local police was basically gone, evaporated, disintegrated. So In January of 2007, the case was officially handed over to India's Central Bureau of Investigation, otherwise known as cbi, which is basically their version of the FBI. And once the CBI stepped in, things moved a lot faster. They searched Moninder's home all over again and they found even more remains, more evidence and a bunch of personal items. I'm talking liquor bottles, mobile phones, photo albums, a double barreled shotgun, even some used cartridges. But the most disturbing thing that they found was a blood stained grill. And don't worry, we will get into that in just a second. Now another item in particular that sparked a whole new wave of speculation was a computer. And this computer had been hooked up to a webcam. So as you can imagine, this immediately raised a ton of questions. Were they recording something? Were they live streaming something? Was there video evidence? Were they filming the victims? Then it came out that while looking into the computer, Moninder's computer, the police found photos of naked children. So just like that, even more rumors took off. Because now some people were convinced that this case most certainly was linked to CSAM material, which is explicit child material that is often found on adult sites. Others thought that there might be a sex trafficking ring involved. Yet I will say that theory was shut down pretty quickly. Later on, the investigators confirmed that the children in these photos were actually Monitor's grandchildren. And ultimately those images were ruled non sexual, which personally I have a problem with. I don't. I didn't see the images myself. But why he had naked photos of his grandchildren, I don't know. But it was ruled as non sexual. Now, despite the mounting physical evidence, investigators could not get Moninder or Surinder to talk, to confess, to say anything or explain what actually had happened inside that house of horrors. So the police turned to a pretty controversial technique, a narcoanalysis test. And it's often called a truth serum test. Basically, it's a drug that lowers your inhibitions and makes you speak more freely, which, which, it's a pretty controversial technique. As I mentioned, a little bit of a bizarre method. But if it works, it works. Hey, I, up until a few years ago, always thought that truth serum was like something from the movies, that it wasn't real. It turns out it is real. It's this chemical that, just like it says, it makes you lower your inhibitions and just kind of start talking, just letting it all out. Now, of course, this is a very controversial method, but also similar to polygraphs, it's not admissible. And that's why there's so much controversy around it. If it was guaranteed and admissible, I think that everybody would be using this in every single case, and things would get solved a lot faster. But the truth is that even if this quote, unquote, truth serum works, if either of these men confessed, that confession could not be used as direct evidence in court. It was legally inadmissible. Still, though, at that point, the police were desperate to find out what really happened inside that house. House. So they used it, and apparently it worked. Surrender confessed to killing multiple children and multiple young women over the period of about two years. He said that he often lured his victims into the house himself. And for children, he would use that candy to get their attention. For older girls and for young women, he would promise them small jobs in return for coming inside the house. Then after he lured them inside, he would strangle them. After that, he would dismember their bodies, sometimes immediately, but sometimes hours later. And he said that he cut the bodies into pieces because he thought that the bodies would be easier to dispose of if it was cut into small pieces. That way, he could avoid suspicion even longer. People wouldn't be on his tail. He said that at first, he kept the remains inside the house wrapped in multiple plastic bags. But then when the smell became too strong, the odor was too pungent, he would toss these remains into the drain in front of the house, else, one piece at a time. He made sure never to dump them all at once, though. And he went into great detail describing how he dumped the body parts little by little, just covering them in garbage to keep the odor down. And the more that Surrender spoke, the darker things got, because he then revealed that before dismembering some of the bodies, he would sexually assault their corpse. He admitted to keeping some of these corpses for hours, even days after they died, just using them as his own toy for his own perversions. It's sick. And in a few cases, he even claimed to have cooked and eaten parts of the victims, including the breast of one of the women, the liver of a child, and the arm of another child. It is so sick. And that explains the bloody grill, right? He literally was cooking them, barbecuing them, and consuming them. It's just absolutely appalling. Now, during all of this, he also tried to defend his actions, saying he was experiencing Mental problems due to sexual dysfunction and issues that he had been having in his marriage. In his mind, he thought that cannibalizing his victims would cure his issue. He also claimed that he was deeply affected by Moninder's lifestyle because he claimed that Moninder was a sex addict, that he had this constant stream of sex workers going in and out of the house. House. According to Sarinder, if Moninder was at the house alone, without his wife or his son, he would hire one or two sex workers a night. And that Surinder was the one who would have to cook meals for these people, cater to these people, clean up after them. And he claimed that initially he was really uncomfortable with all of this, but then over time he got used to it and he even became jealous that these sex workers weren't for him. He said that he grew angry, confused, and then eventually sexually frustrated. He then described this mental fog that he would fall into where he didn't really know what he was doing, how he couldn't control his actions, his violent urges would just build up until he couldn't hold back anymore. So that is when, according to him, he says he would kidnap people and that once he acted on his urges, it would take him hours to calm back down. Almost like it was this peak adrenaline rush. And then he had to just like, like re center his body. He said that he would eventually come back to himself, realize what he had done, feel terrible, and then just put all of his focus on cleaning up the scene and hiding the evidence. And he described each instance like it was as if he was being controlled by someone else. He claimed he felt like he was possessed. He even gave specific details about several of the victims, including Payal, the 20 year old who went missing in May of 2006. He said he lured her into the house by offering her work. Then he followed that same pattern that he did with all of his other victims. He strangled her, dismembered her, and then disposed of her. He also admitted to killing Rachna, the little girl who went missing in April of 2006. Her skull was later recovered inside the house along with her clothing, which was later identified by her parents. Now, I want to give a little bit of a warning here, but Surrender claimed that his youngest victim was just three years old and that in all of the instances he was the one who killed the victims, that he acted completely alone. And in fact, in at least one of the cases, cell phone records did confirm that Moninder was out of town at the time of the murder. But then Sarinder's story started changing over time. He started saying that after he killed the victims, Moninder was the one who sexually assaulted the bodies. Then he claimed that he only killed the children because Moninder forced him to do so. Then ultimately he took back his entire confession saying that it wasn't true and that it had been violently coerced out of him. Now, while most of the focus at that point was on Surrender and his very graphic confession and accounts of what took place in that house, attention quickly started shifting back to Moninder. I mean, he did own the home after all. And even if he wasn't there all the time, how could Syrinder have gotten away with all of this and kept it a secret? Surely Munder would have seen these things inside his own home. But from the very beginning, Muninder denied any involvement in the murders. He told the police that he had no idea what Serinder had been doing inside the house. He insisted he never saw and never heard anything that would have raised suspicion. But then his story changed too, during his own truth serum confession test. Because then Moninder reportedly admitted that he is the one who told Surrender to get rid of Payal. Apparently Moninder had hired her in the past. He claimed that she was blackmailing him after he tried to hire her for sex work. And that because of that he just wanted her gone. He needed her gone. He also admitted to being a regular client of sex workers, saying that he was depressed, that he needed this urge satisfied. He said he felt disconnected from his family. He started drinking too much and then relied on Surrender to handle everything in the Noida house. That he just trusted him completely. But even with this confession, it was unclear how deep his involvement went. On one hand, there was evidence that indicated that he was never present in the home when the killings happened. His phone records showed that he was often traveling out of town, away on business at the same time that these children went missing. Sometimes he was even hundreds of miles away. But again, it was his house. Remains were found inside the house and some of the remains had clearly been there for a while. The smell was overwhelming. The evidence also wasn't exactly super hidden. So even if he wasn't physically present for the murders, people felt he still had to know something.

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The public's response to this whole thing was very complicated. In many ways Moninder became the main villain of the story. Not Surinder who actually confessed to these crimes, but the homeowner. In the media he was portrayed a lot worse. He was portrayed as a wealthy sex addicted drunk whose family was broken, whose marriage was in shambles. And the media ran with the story too. Headlines started calling his house the house of Horrors and he quickly became the face of this entire case. Now part of this probably had to do with the difference between the two men because surrender came from poverty. Like most of the victims families. Moninder on the other hand was rich, he was educated, he was connected, he lived this life of luxury. So for a lot of people it felt like yet again another example of a powerful man getting away with everything while somebody else took the fall. Meanwhile, Moninder's family had a very different take. His son publicly defended him calling the accusations against his father a smear campaign. He described his father as a kind, generous man who had taken care of relatives loved ones, that he loved his family deeply, that he couldn't possibly be capable of such heinous crimes. He also denied the reports that his parents marriage was strained. He said he and his mother lived in a different city the majority of the time yet, but they visited the Noida house regularly and he said if something fishy had been going on we would have noticed.

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But the public was not convinced. The victims families still believed that Moninder had played a major role in this. Maybe Surinder had yes been the one who committed all these murders. But they believed that Moninder was the mastermind behind all of it. And then another name came up in connection with the a maid who had worked there for many, many years named Maya. Now, at first she didn't seem central to the investigation. She cooked, cleaned and worked in the house alongside Serinder. But then people started wondering, okay, well, how could she have worked in that house for so long and not noticed anything? She was in the house every day after all. But when the police eventually interviewed her, she said she saw nothing, heard nothing, no blood, no screams, no strange smells, nothing unusual. But the investigators were not convinced. So they kept bringing Maya in for questioning. And sure enough, her story kept changing. At one point, she claimed she knew nothing, right? Heard nothing, saw something, had no indication that anything strange was going on. But then later, she said that Surrender had asked her to help lure women and children inside the house. She insisted that she had absolutely no idea why he asked her to do it. But she did it because she was just following his orders. So in an effort to figure out what the truth was, what wasn't the truth, Maya underwent a lie detector test. However, the results were inconclusive. It didn't clear her name. But it also didn't directly implicate her either. She stuck to her claim that she had never seen anything suspicious. Police weren't really sure what to believe. On one hand, she really may not have known what was going on. She was only at the house for certain times throughout the day. But on the other hand, the house wasn't that big. And again, remains were found everywhere. But because the police couldn't determine whether Maya was involved or not, she was let go and she was never charged with anything. In May of 2007, several months after the initial arrests, Moninder was officially charged with the murder of Peyal. He was charged with conspiracy to murder, destruction of evidence and harboring the accused. In total, there were 19 known victims and Surinder was charged with 16 of those murders. Moninder, on the other hand, was charged in six of them. But eventually, in every case except Payal, he ended up being cleared. Surrender was listed as the sole accused between 2007 and 2011. Case after case went to trial. The courts treated each murder as a separate trial too, leading to multiple trials for both Surrender and moninder. The first big conviction came in early 2009 when both men were found guilty of the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl. Originally, the CBI had determined that Moninder had No direct involvement in the case case. But then after further investigation, they believed that he was involved. So each man received a death sentence. By 2011, surrender had been convicted in five more trials. And in each trial he was found guilty of murder. And every single time he was sentenced to death. And the convictions were all upheld by India's Supreme Court. Both men filed appeals, specifically mercy petitions. These were formal requests made to the President of India asking him to reduce their sentence or at the very least take away the death penalty convictions. And then in 2014, the tide started to shift. That summer, a High Court granted Moninder bail. They agreed to review his case as well. And they determined that all of the evidence against him was circumstantial and that it was ultimately inadmissible. So with that, his convictions were dropped. He still had to remain in jail due to pending charges. But now things were changing. And around that same time, a date was set for Surrender's execution. He was scheduled to death by hanging in September of 2014. But just days before that was supposed to happen, a last minute petition halted it.

[News Reporter]

Our other focus is Friday. Death row convict Surinder Kohli, who was found guilty in the Netari case, literally got a new lease of life after the Supreme Court on Monday decided to stay his execution, allowing him to make a fresh appeal. Additional Solicitor General Jai Singh argued that Kohli had not been given a fair hearing before the apex Court dismissed his review plea on 24th July in the RINPA Halda rape and murder case. She argued that Kohli must get the benefit of the court's September to order and that condemned prisoners must be allowed an opportunity to argue in an open court through their lawyer and be given one last chance to plead for leniency after a local court issued the death warrant following the rejection of Kohli's review plea by the Supreme Court, he was to be hanged anytime between 7 September and 15 September.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

The following year, the Supreme Court agreed to review Surrender's case while one more time and in 2015, his sentence was reduced to life in prison. Then in 2017, both men were again convicted in another murder case and both of them again were sentenced to death. New verdicts were issued in 2022, nearly 20 years after the murders first began. However, just a year later, things once again took a very sharp and unexpected turn. The High Court revisited all of the cases and high courts are kind of like the highest court at the state level and they stated that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable Doubt. So of the 16 cases that surrender had been charged in, he was acquitted of 15 of them. There was no DNA evidence. His confession with the truth serum couldn't be used as evidence, and nothing could definitively prove that he was involved in these murders. Moninder, who had once faced six separate charges, was also clear. The court said that there was no solid proof that he had ever even been present when the murders occurred. So he was released from prison and he's no longer facing any charges. He is a free man. Surrender, though, is still behind bars because he is currently serving a life sentence for that one single conviction that stuck, one that has not been overturned. The details of that final case have not been made public, but it is one of the original 16, and he is still trying to appeal it. Now. Even though the court closed the book on most of these cases, obviously it didn't feel over for a lot of the people, especially those involved. So when the announcement of the acquittals came in 2023, the public's reaction was all over the place. Most people were stunned and obviously, of course, furious. They felt like any justice that had been served was completely now undone. And after everything that had come out, all of the trials, the media coverage, how could both men just walk away with almost every single thing overturned? Other people, though, weren't really sure what to think. They pointed out that there was weak evidence, there was unreliable confessions, there was a total lack of DNA evidence, and they argued that if the case couldn't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that maybe the court had no choice but to acquit them.

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How did the prosecution fail? I mean, in this case, it was said that they have a waterproof case. The CBI investigated this, this case. There were remains found. There were confessional statements, you know, and sensational details that had come out at that point of time. What went wrong?

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

Absolutely, that is indeed the big question, because, as you said, there were confessional statements. In fact, Kohli had confessed to, you know, horrific details like, you know, having sexual intercourse with the dead victims and also eating their body parts. So there were allegations of cannibalism that were actually confessed to or admitted to by Kohli, the domestic staff here. In fact, a lot of locals also tell us that this was one house which was extremely dubious since the beginning. Nevertheless, you know, there was also a narco analysis conducted at the time. There was a polygraph test that was done as well. And it's been over 17 years. The case was taken over by the CBI. There were multiple charge sheets filed not one, but multiple charge sheets filed. And in fact, Kohli was also found guilty of rape. So you know, even after that, even after such a long multi agency investigation, the big question is why was it not a watertight case that could stand the test of law? Because of course, when we speak to experts and lawyers who have been involved in this particular case, they say that while confessional statements cannot stand the test of law, there's a lot of evidence, in fact, a lot of those remains were sent for forensic examination as well. So even after that, the Allahabad High Court today, citing lack of evidence, you know, to, to, to in a sense vindicate them is something that's raised many questions so far. The, the police have, the prosecution have not really come out with any, with any strong statement. But these larger questions on investigation remain.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

Now in Netari, the neighborhood where it all began, people were furious, they were heartbroken, they were confused, they were just devastated because to them these cases felt cut and dry. They thought that their questions had finally been answered. But now new questions were surfacing all over again.

[Legal Expert/Commentator]

Sanket, as you saw, it's extremely difficult for these parents to actually even come to terms with the fact that the alleged killers of their, of their children, they are set to walk free. Of course, one step closer at least to walking free. And let me also show you that very house here in Nari where the bodies with human remains were actually recovered from. This is where. This is Mander Singh Pander's house here in nari, of course, 30, just 30 kilometers away from the capital and just beyond this was the drain from where, you know, body after body was recovered. In fact, skeleton after skeleton was recovered. This house is completely deserted. Right, right now what locals tell us is that nobody has actually come to stay here after Pander was, you know, arrested almost 16 years ago. And the locals say that that moment when those skeletons were recovered, that moment is something that cannot be forgotten. Here in Nithari, it's a small village and everybody is in a sense connected to that horrific memory of, you know, over 20 children and women being, their remains being recovered. And parents said there are just two families left of the victims. And they, you know, they're in shock. They can't come to terms with the fact that they've been acquitted. And they also say importantly that they have nowhere to go because they cannot, they can't afford a lawyer. They, they went to, they went to the Supreme Court earlier. All of them had come together and you know, they'd gotten a lawyer. But now they say that they have no hopes left. And judge justice has been denied to them.

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

For one, it had been discovered that over 38 children in total were reported missing from Nitari. And all of these were around the time that these crimes were happening. However, only 19 bodies were ever recovered. So what about the rest? And even with all of the bodies that were found, some details never sat right. For example, some of the skeletal remains didn't seem decomposed enough for how long some of those kids had been missing. And again, the incisions on some of the bodies, they were so exact and they were done with surgical precision. It didn't seem likely that this was something either man in the house could have done and could have gotten away with. So it led many people to believe that this wasn't just the result of one or two very disturbed individuals, but that maybe something larger was going on. Maybe there was a group of individuals that had been working together this entire time. Many still believed that these deaths were also the result of an illegal organ trafficking scheme. And they feel like that theory was never properly investigated. Others believed that Moninder had played a bigger role in all of this, but that his money and his influence helped him quietly just kind of like buy his way out of everything, buy his freedom, so to speak. They thought that the truth was probably just swept under the rug because it would have made way too many powerful people look bad. And the families, they were beyond distraught. They were given a small amount of compensation from the government. However, not everyone took it. They said that what they wanted wasn't money. They wanted answers. They wanted homes, job support and education for their other surviving children. They wanted somebody to be held responsible too. And in their eyes, nobody had been.

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It involved the discovery of multiple human remains in and around Mohinder Singh Pandey residence in Noida, uttar Pradesh in 2006. The grisly details of the case sent shockwaves across the country that led to the arrest and then subsequent conviction of Kohli and Pandey. The serial killings took place at Mandar Singh Pandey's home in Nithari in Noida between 2005 and 2006. Surinder Kohli worked as a help at Pander's residence. Now, in case that horrified India, Sundar Kohli was found guilty of rape and murder of several children. In fact, as many as 19 children, 10 girls and nine boys were apparently killed. As far as these killings are concerned, the duo were also convicted for rape and murder of 20 year old woman. The case came to light after neighbors Found body parts of missing children from a dream near Pandey's residence. Investigation, ladies and gentlemen, which went on for a long time. And then of course the lower court had sentenced Kohli for death penalty. Now remember now, after the acquittal of Kohli and Pandher, the big question at least the family members of these kids are asking, is there nobody then who killed their children?

[Annie Elise (Podcast Host)]

So here we are now, nearly two decades after the first child went missing and this case still doesn't feel settled. One man is free, one is, yes, still behind bars, but only for a single conviction, one that he is currently appealing. Which if we go on track record, maybe that will be a successful appeal. And for all of the families in Natari, they're the ones who spent years begging for help, searching the streets when nobody else would. And now it feels like justice was never really served. There are still unanswered questions, still missing children and still a lot of pain. Because whether or not you believe surrender acted alone or you think that there is more to this story than we were ever allowed to know, one thing is very clear. The people who were supposed to protect this community failed. And that failure will always be a stain on this case. And I'm curious to know what you guys think. Was justice served here or do you think that something bigger was buried along the way? How powerful does it get? Does it get up to the high courts and the supreme courts to where bribery can be involved or cover up collusion, conspiracy, protection? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. So drop a comment either in the Spotify comment section or leave a review on Apple podcasts and let me know what you think. And of course if you're watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comments. As always, thank you guys so much for listening and for watching. I know that this was like a stomach turning case and very difficult to hear but I appreciate you sticking through. I hope that these families get answers. I hope that whatever is going on comes to light and that the monsters who are responsible for this are finally held accountable. Because who knows if they haven't been, who knows what sick and twisted shit they are still doing or could be doing. It's a really scary thought. So thank you for listening and share this episode where you can too. Maybe it'll help generate more awareness. Alright guys, I'll be back with you on Thursday with headline highlights breaking down everything going on this week in True crime. And then of course I will be back with you Friday and next Monday with new deep dives into cases we have not discussed. All right, thanks again for tuning in. Until the next one, be nice. Don't kill people. Don't go into any house that you're invited to if you don't know them. And keep your children away from freaks who offer them candy. All right, thanks, guys. Bye.

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