Nithari Killings: Allahabad High Court Frees Prime Accused Who Were On Death Row (Image:twitter/ Sneha Mordani)
The High Court acquitted Surinder Koli, the prime suspect in 12 cases to the Nithari serial killings. Co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher was also acquitted in two cases where he had previously been sentenced to death.
The Allahabad High Court, in Uttar Pradesh, acquitted the two suspects in the notorious Nithari killings, a 2005-2006 Noida serial murders case. The court let the prime suspect Surinder Koli free in 12 cases concerning the probe, and Moninder Singh Pandher in two cases. To these, both were previously sentenced to death penalty by the trial court.
The appeals on the death penalty were considered by a bench comprised of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi. They allowed the appeals after reserving the judgement in the cases last month. The High Court “acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher in the two appeals against him. There were a total of 6 cases against him. Koli has been acquitted in all appeals against him her”, said Manisha Bhandari, lawyer of Mr Pandher, addressing the media when the judgement came.
#WATCH | Manisha Bhandari, lawyer of Nithari case convict Moninder Singh Pandher, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
“Allahabad High Court has acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher in the two appeals against him. There were a total of 6 cases against him. Koli has been acquitted in all… pic.twitter.com/BYQHeu3xvz
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) October 16, 2023
The current decision is big blow to the national investigation agency CBI who took the probe.
The BBC has released a documentary on the case titled Slumdog Cannibal in 2012, and Netflix presented another, The Karma Killings in 2017, directed by Ram Devineni. The movie Murder 2 (2011) was also inspired by the case. It was directed by Mohit Suri, starring Emraan Hashmi, Jacqueline Fernandez and Prashant Narayanan.
Nithari Case: What Happened?
The series of crimes which span from February 2005 to October 2006 occurred in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. They were all associated with a businessman named Moninder Singh Pandher who lived in Sector-31 near Noida’s Nithari village.
The crime came into light when the natives of the village spotted skeletons and human body remains of missing children of the area, in a drain near the house of Mr Pandher.
Surinder Koli was his domestic help.
They were arrested on December 29, 2006.
According to the chargesheet registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mr Koli was accused of 16 charges including murder, abduction, rape, and destruction of evidences.
He was accused of tempting children to the house offering them sweets and chocolates, murder them, and had sex with the corpses.
He was awarded death sentence by the lower court for 12 of the charges.
The conviction by the lower court against Mr Koli was later upheld by the Allahabad High Court and then confirmed by the Supreme Court on February 15, 2011.
Mr Koli and Mr Panther were also accused of cannibalism and necrophilia.
Mr Panther was accused for immoral trafficking by the central agency, but summoned by the Ghaziabad court in five other cases after several victims’ families approached the court. Charges of brutal murder and rape were also added to him
Mr Panther was given death sentence for two of the cases among them, by a trial court in the Allahabad High Court, which he challenged.
In 2014, the President of India rejected the mercy petitions filed by Mr Koli, and a death warrant was issued by the court. He was then moved to Meerut jail because of the absence of hanging facilities at Dasna Jail, Ghaziabad.
Mr Koli was supposed to be hanged on 12 September 2014.
Even though the Supreme Court rejected the death sentence review petition, on January 2015 High Court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PKS Baghel commuted the death sentence of Surinder Koli to life imprisonment on the ground of “inordinate delay” in deciding his mercy petition.
It was in 2019, he was given a death sentence in 10th conviction.
