Police find 15 skulls in house outside New Delhi

INDIA: Indian police have recovered 15 skulls, many of children, from a house on the outskirts of New Delhi, officials said on Saturday, believing many of the victims were sexually abused before they were killed.

A domestic worker in the house has admitted killing the children, a senior policeman said, while another official suggested the children might have been killed for the trade in human organs.

Some of the remains, including skeletons and clothes of the victims, were buried in the backyard of the house in Noida town while others were stuffed in large plastic bags and thrown into a drain, officials said.

The crime came to light after police arrested domestic servant Surendra Satish in connection with the disappearance of several children in the area.

"Surendra, who initially admitted to having raped and killed six minor girls and two boys over the past two months, gave in to sustained interrogation and owned up to killing seven grown-up girls too," said R.K.S. Rathore, Noida's police chief.

Surendra's employer, Mohinder Singh Pandher, had also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the case, Rathore said.

Police had said on Friday that Surendra had lured the children from poor families in the area by offering them sweets.

Noida is in Uttar Pradesh state and a senior police officer in the state capital of Lucknow said police were also investigating if the children were victims of a suspected trade in human organs in the area.

Lucknow, Sunday Reuters