New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of Surendra Koli in the last remaining murder case related to the infamous 2005-2006 Nithari killings in Noida. The petitioner is acquitted of the charges. The petitioner shall be released forthwith, a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath said. The Supreme Court was hearing the curative petition filed by Koli against its 2011 judgment, which had confirmed his conviction in the killing of a 15-year-old girl.
The Nithari incident is among the few crimes in the country that have been marked by such inhumanity and media scrutiny. The Nithari killings came to light in December 2006, when skeletal remains of several children were found in a drain behind the house of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in Noida’s Nithari area. Both Pandher and Koli, who worked as domestic help in his household, were arrested.
Between 2009 and 2017, Koli was convicted of raping and murdering various children and sentenced to death in 12 cases. In the 13th case involving the 15-year-old girl, the Allahabad High Court initially held Koli guilty but acquitted Pandher. An appeal by Koli against this verdict was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011. A review plea by Koli was also later rejected in 2014.
In 2015, the High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment due to an inordinate delay in deciding on Koli’s mercy petition. In between, the High Court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two. This prompted the CBI and the victims’ families to file 14 appeals before the Supreme Court.
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