Moninder Singh Pandher and his cook Surendra Kohli were with the police even before skeletons were unearthed from the drain behind their house in Noida’s Sector 31 on December 29 but the police did not know they were involved in the disappearance of children.

Moninder was picked up on December 26 and his cook, the following day.

The police had zeroed in on them for Payal’s murder, using the International Mobile Equipment Identification system. After Surendra confessed, they started digging for Payal’s body and came across the remains of Nithari’s missing children.

After an FIR on Payal’s disappearance was filed on October 7, investigations were handed to Circle Officer Dinesh Yadav. Yadav said police started investigations by tracking Payal’s mobile phone and found Payal’s SIM card was not active but the phone was being used.

Yadav said: “The first thing we did was to put Payal’s mobile phone under surveillance and through this phone we tracked down a number of people. Once we apprehended someone with Payal’s mobile phone, our questioning would lead us to the seller. Finally, we reached the first man who sold it, a rickshawpuller of Nithari who took us to Moninder’s house.”

The rickshawpuller told police that the phone belonged to someone in the bungalow and the user had left it in the rickshaw. Yadav said: “Once we got this confirmation we called Moninder for questioning.” That was on December 26. (Moninder had been questioned earlier following Payal’s father Nandlal’s complaint but he had moved the HC against his arrest.)

... contd.