India's Cannibalistic Serial Killer Was House Servant

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Servant Charged Over Serial Killings

India - A servant has been charged with the rape and murder of a young woman, and police said he has confessed to killing 16 women and children, eating some of their flesh, in a case that has shocked the country.

Surender Koli was charged with killing a 26-year-old prostitute, one of 19 victims whose mutilated remains were found packed in 57 plastic bags in December around the house where he was working in Noida, a town on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Police and local officials have been heavily criticised for their handling of the case. A federal government investigation accused them of ignoring reports of missing children for more than two years because the victims were from poor families.

"Of the first victim, he ate the flesh of that particular unfortunate lady ... he put it in the cooker and ate it," Arun Kumar, joint director of India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said.

He said that the liver of another victim was eaten raw.

A psychiatrist said he had analysed Mr Koli and found him to be sexually aroused by raping corpses and eating human flesh, adding that he was still mentally fit to stand trial.

Investigators say Moninder Singh Pandher, a wealthy businessman and Mr Koli's employer, was oblivious to the serial killings happening in his own home.

"He was not aware at all of the murders going on in his house," said Mr Kumar, adding that Mr Pandher was still under investigation in connection with "one or two" of the killings.

Mr Pandher's mobile phone records showed he was not at home on most of the occasions where the killings were believed to have happened, Mr Kumar said.

However, Mr Pandher has been charged with running a prostitution racket. He was also charged with pressuring witnesses and bribing police officials not to investigate his servant.

But angry residents in Nithari, the poor neighbourhood near Mr Pandher's house where most of the victims came from, called today for a new investigation into the killings, refusing to believe Mr Pandher played no role.

"We have lost our trust in CBI. Why are they protecting a killer?" a Nithari resident told CNN-IBN.

Mr Pandher's son, Karan, maintains his father is innocent.

"It's virtually impossible to bribe the CBI," he said.

The CBI, which took over the case after accusations of lapses by the local police, has charged a junior police officer for suppressing evidence and taking bribes from Mr Pandher to drop investigations against his servant.

Five other police officers have also been sacked and three more suspended for dereliction of duty in the case.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups condemned the CBI's use of narco-analysis during interrogations, in which suspects are drugged with a "truth serum" before questioning.