Twenty-six-year-old Payal’s body was found some distance from Pandher’s house after her father Nand Lal forced the police to investigate her disappearance since May. The police had earlier brushed off the case, saying she was, after all, only a call girl. Payal’s phone was still missing.

Following leads, the police nabbed a rickshaw puller who was using the phone. During interrogation, he said the phone belonged to somebody from bungalow D-5 in Sector 31 and had been left on the rickshaw. Pandher was then called in for questioning on December 26.

The same day, Surender left for his native village Magru Khan in Almora.

Moninder was asked by the police to send one of his drivers to fetch Surender from the village. Pandher’s driver spent the night in Magru Khan and drove back with Surender on December 27.

During questioning, Surender told the police that he had found the cell phone in the neighbourhood and was using it.

Subsequently, he admitted that it was Payal’s mobile and that he had murdered her on May 7 after his master asked him to. He then dumped her body behind Pandher’s residence. Having extracted the information late in the evening, the investigators decided to call it a day.

The next morning, armed with lathis, two policemen went behind Pandher’s house and began to dig. In full view of the residents of Nithari and other curious onlookers, the Noida police started pulling out bones. Far from being merely the case of Payal’s disappearance, the JCB machines unearthed Nithari’s worst nightmare.

After spending an entire day digging up Pandher’s backyard, the police were suddenly staring at the remains of the missing children of Nithari — more than 30 of them mentioned in complaints that they had dismissed with a shrug. And standing alongside, watching the horrific story unfold were the distressed parents, who had time and again been shooed away from the police chowki.

All through New Year’s eve weekend, the JCB machines ploughed through the backyard, while the policemen went fishing in the drain flowing outside. Armed with sticks, they pulled out bones.

The police recovered 17 skulls and a large number of other skeletal remains which doctors identified as bones of the limbs. Skeletal remains of the thoracic and abdominal region are still missing.

With the bones came valuable articles that showed themselves to distraught parents — several slippers, sandals, school bags and a tiffin box.