Upamanyu Biswas
In the Indian crime movie ‘Sector 36,’ a serial killer named Prem Singh abducts and murders several children from a slum area in Noida in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Prem works for a wealthy businessman named Balbir Singh Bassi as a helper and caretaker at his furnished residence. The illustrious owner allows Prem free reign over his home whenever he is out of town, suggesting a solid bond between the employer and his employee. However, as the deaths begin ramping up, SI Ram Charan Pandey starts suspecting Bassi of being involved in the serial murder case whose prime suspect is Prem. Therefore, the enigmatic businessman becomes a subject of great intrigue throughout the narrative of the thriller movie. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Balbir Singh Bassi is a Fictional Businessman With Hazy Connections to Reality
The events presented in ‘Sector 36’ are loosely based on the Nithari Killings that took place in Noida in Uttar Pradesh, India. As such, the character Balbir Singh Bassi is a fictional creation of writer Bodhayan Roychaudhury, who vaguely resembles one of the alleged culprits in the actual case, Moninder Singh Pandher. In 2006, the bodies of several missing children were found near Pandher’s residence, house D-5 in Sector-31. The ensuing investigation identified the businessman and his helper, Surinder Koli, as the primary accused of the crime. However, in 2023, both were acquitted of their charges by the Allahabad High Court in 2023 due to a lack of evidence. The character of Bassi distinctly mirrors the reported allegations made about Pandher during the case.
The children’s murders took place between 2005 and 2006, during which parents of the missing victims lodged complaints to the local authorities. In December 2006, a couple of residents from the Nithari village claimed that they had learned the location of the bodies of the missing children from the past two years. The suspected location was a water tank behind house D-5, the residence inhabited by Pandher and his aid, Koli. Later, Pandher and Koli were arrested after the latter confessed to having sexually assaulted and murdered six children along with a 20-year-old woman named Payal. The confession was later recanted by Koli. The Noida businessman would be convicted in two out of five cases against him, while there were also allegations of pornography and cannibalism leveled at him.
The Comparisons Between the Movie and the Real Case
In the movie, Bassi is depicted as a womanizer who is often shown in the company of sex workers or availing himself of their services. He is a regular customer of Chumki, a young woman from Rajiv Camp, who is slaughtered by Prem. There is also a scene where Prem goes up to Bassi’s bedroom to find it occupied by two foreign sex workers. He would also often tape himself having sex with these women, footage that was then stored in his house by Prem. During the Nithari Killings investigation, Pandher was also declared a depressed womanizer after brain mapping and polygraph tests were issued on January 4, 2007, by the Directorate of Forensic Sciences in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Therefore, some parallels can be seen between Bassi and his real-life counterpart.
Ultimately, however, Moninder Singh Pandher was acquitted of his charges for his alleged role in the Nithari Killings by the Allahabad High Court on October 16, 2023. He spent around 14 years in prison, with the rest being spent on bail. His helper, Surinder Koli, who took most of the blame for the murders, was also cleared of charges by the Allahabad High Court. The movie’s version of events presents a slightly altered reality. Prem Singh, who is loosely based on Koli, cops the most blame for the serial killings, while his boss, Bassi, actively tries to get released from jail with the aid of inside contacts, specifically the character of Jawahar Rastogi. Therefore, the movie portrays Bassi as having gotten away scot-free from the brunt of the fallout of the killings – painting him in a negative light.
The narrative also hints that Bassi might have engaged in acts of pedophilia with the missing children victims before they were killed. As ‘Sector 36’ is primarily a fictional tale, certain creative liberties were taken by the writer and filmmakers in portraying a version of events that are inspired by the Nithari killings but ultimately deviate from the actual case details. As such, Balbir Singh Bassi is mainly a fictional character who does not exist in reality.
