In the Govardhan Towers in Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, there is a sense of disbelief. For, Moninder Singh Pandher once lived there. Neighbours say Moninder had stayed in the Flat No. 206 for around one-and-a-half years along with his wife and son. The flat now belongs to SK Saksena and his family. Saksena says he never knew much about Moninder and his family because by the time he bought the flat through a property dealer, they had already left.

In the adjoining flat, however, Dr Dwivedi cannot believe that ‘Goldy’ was the same man whom he had seen so many times. “They were a nice family. But they were always aloof,” Dwivedi says.

The neighbours said that they never suspected the family of being involved in anything shady although there used to talk about their circumstances. “Ours is a BPCL flat and a number of guards look around the security of the place. However, now that we have seen and heard about the children in Nithari, we feel scared. If children had gone missing here nobody would have suspected anyone in the building,” said Saurabh, one of the neighbours.