NEW DELHI, Jan 25 (Reuters) - An angry mob attacked the main accused in the gruesome killing of about 20 children and women near New Delhi -- a case which has shocked India -- as police escorted them to court on Thursday.

Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surender Koli were surrounded by dozens of people outside the court in neighbouring Ghaziabad town, where they had been brought for an extension of their police custody, the private NDTV channel said.

TV footage showed the mob, including some lawyers, lashing out at the accused and hitting them as police tried to protect them. Pandher was shown lying on the ground after the blows, having apparently fainted.

Singh and Koli were arrested in December after skulls and body parts of adults and children were dug up from a drain outside Pandher's house in Noida, an industrial town near Delhi.

Six police have been sacked and four suspended after criticism that they were slow to follow up on reports of missing children over at least two years.

The case has been transferred from Noida police to the country's main investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.

AlertNet news is provided by

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink