Surendra Koli, the co-accused in the Nithari serial killings, confessed during interrogation that he consumed human flesh, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Bua Singh said on Tuesday.

The DGP told media persons that Koli confessed before interrogators that he tried to eat human flesh, but vomitted.

On December 29, a ghastly tale of blood and lust unfolded, when police found skulls and bones of children in the drain behind house number D-5 of Noida's Sector 31. The house owner, industrialist Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra are alleged to have committed the crime and are now under arrest.

Surendra said he used to sexually abuse and strangle the victims before disposing of their bodies in the drain.

Over the last two years, 38 children have gone missing from Nithari, home to over 25,000 people, mostly migrants from West Bengal, who earn their livelihood by pulling rickshaws, working as daily labourers or as domestic help in the upscale residential colonies nearby.

Their complaints to police about their missing children were unheard until the skeletal remains were found. At present, Pandher and Koli are undergoing narco tests at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already announced to hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation.