Today, On 30th July, in the Nithari killings case, the Supreme Court has dismissed 14 appeals that challenged the acquittal of Surendra Koli. The court upheld the earlier verdict, ending the long-running legal battle.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismissed 14 appeals challenging the acquittal of Surendra Koli in the notorious 2006 Nithari serial killings case.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and K Vinod Chandran stated that “there was no perversity” in the Allahabad High Court’s decision to acquit Koli.
In its remarks, the Chief Justice referenced Section 27 of the Evidence Act, indicating that the retrieval of skulls and other victim belongings from an open drain did not follow a statement made by Koli to the police.
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The bench noted that any evidence obtained without prior recording of the accused’s statement by the police is inadmissible under evidence law. It clarified that only recoveries made from locations accessible solely to the accused can be considered valid in cases predominantly based on circumstantial evidence.
Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to review separate petitions, including those from the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh government, which contested the Allahabad High Court’s acquittal of Koli on October 16, 2023. Among these petitions was one from the father of a victim challenging the high court’s ruling.
Koli and his associate, Moninder Singh Pandher, were implicated in the rape and murder of numerous children from their neighborhood in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh.
Koli initially sentenced to death on September 28, 2010, by the trial court. Along with his employer, Moninder Singh Pandher, Koli accused of the rape and murder of individuals, primarily children from their neighborhood in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh.
The high court later acquitted both men, stating that the prosecution had failed to prove their guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” and described the investigation as “botched up.”
In reversing the death sentences given to Koli in 12 cases and to Pandher in two, the high court criticized the investigation as “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
It allowed multiple appeals from Koli and Pandher, who contested the death sentences imposed by a CBI court in Ghaziabad. A total of 19 cases were filed against the pair in 2007, with the CBI eventually submitting closure reports in three cases due to insufficient evidence. Koli was acquitted in three of the 16 remaining cases, and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life imprisonment.
The shocking killings uncovered when the skeletal remains of eight children found in a drain behind Pandher’s residence in Nithari, Noida, near the national capital, on December 29, 2006. Further excavation and searches in the drains around the area led to the discovery of additional skeletal remains, most of which belonged to impoverished children and young women who had gone missing from the area. Within 10 days, the CBI took over the investigation, leading to the recovery of more remains.
Pandher and Koli faced charges of rape and murder, receiving death penalties for the crimes which deeply shocked the nation due to the horrifying nature of the assaults, vicious killings, and indications of potential cannibalism.
However, the appropriate procedure for recording his statement, which led to the discovery of biological remains such as skulls, bones, and skeletons, was completely disregarded. The court upheld multiple appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who challenged the death sentence imposed by a CBI court in Ghaziabad.