The protesters on Friday hurled gasoline-soaked rags at the shuttered home of main accused Moninder Singh Pandher in the New Delhi suburb of Noida and set fire to its entrance, officials deployed at the site said.

"The fire was immediately put out as a fire truck was positioned there and the crowd was then dispersed," a Noida police spokeswoman said a day after the two hours of rioting.

She said that dozens of parents were on their way to meet Noida police chief Rajiv Sabharwal but en route they attacked businessman Pandher's home, where the remains of at least 21 people, mostly children, have been found.

The victims belonged to the nearby to Nithari village.

The murders, the most macabre in India in decades, came to light in December when Noida police recovered skulls, bones and other body parts from sewage drains near Pandher's bungalow.

Pandher and his servant Surender Koli face 21 counts of abduction, rape and murder of children as young as three years of age.

Police say Koli has confessed to having abducted children from Nithari then killing them in his employer's home and disposing of the remains.

He has also reportedly admitted to cannibalism and necrophilia during lie detector tests.

Nithari residents say as many as 40 children have disappeared since 2004.