On Monday, October 16, Allahabad High Court acquitted Surendra Koli in 12 cases in which he was awarded the death penalty by a trial court. Moninder Singh Pandher has been acquitted in two cases in which he was awarded the death penalty. The two are the prime accused in the infamous 2006 Nithari murders in UP’s Noida.
BREAKING | Nithari Killings: #AllahabadHighCourt Acquits Surendra Koli In 12 Cases, Moninder Pander In 2 Cases; Sets Aside Death Sentence#NithariKillings #Nithari #DeathPenaltyhttps://t.co/sANhXHZXmp
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 16, 2023
Pandher and Koli were arrested on December 29, 2006. They were sentenced to death on charges of rape and murder by a trial court.
The Allahabad High Court High Court bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SAH Rizvi on Monday, gave its verdict on 14 applications of Koli and Pandher. While Surendra Koli had filed an appeal against the death sentence given in 12 cases, Moninder Singh Pandher had filed an application against the punishment given in two cases.
According to reports, the bench reversed in September judgement and accepted the two convicts’ appeal on the basis of lack of evidence and witnesses.
Moninder Pander was represented by attorney Manisha Bhandari. For Surendra Koli, attorney Payoshi Roy made an appearance.
A detailed copy of the judgement is awaited.
The 2005-2006 Nithari murders
The Nithari serial killings are one of the most notorious series of murders that has ever taken place in India. The gruesome killings had taken place between 2005 and 2006.
The bone-chilling incident came to the fore in December 2006, when two Nithari residents, the children of whom had also gone missing, told the police that they knew the location of the children’s remains. They identified the location to be the municipal water tank behind house number D5, Sector 31, Noida.
The bungalow belonged to Moninder Singh Pandher who lived there alone with his full-time house help Surendra Koli. His family lived in Chandigarh. Moreover, a domestic help named Maya Sarkar, a gardener and two drivers were employed in the house.
When the police started investigating the case, several plastic bags containing human skeletons were found in a sewer behind the bungalow. The Noida police arrested Pandher and Koli and the case was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In front of the magistrate in 2007, Koli admitted to killing 11 female children, 2 male kids, and 5 adult women. he had said that he had lured the children to his residence by offering them sweets and chocolates. Koli allegedly used to strip off the victim’s clothes after each murder and make attempts at having sex with the dead body. After that, he used to carry the body upstairs to a bathroom where he cut it into pieces.
After three to four hours, he would cook some of the body parts and eat them. Only then, he would clean the drawing room area and the bathroom and throw the remains out of the bungalow.
Following the shocking revelations, what followed were trials and investigations for years. The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence for Koli for the murder of Rimpa Halder in 2005. The Supreme Court dismissed Koli’s review plea in 2014.
Finally, in 2017, Koli was given a death sentence in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases.
Last year, Surinder Koli was handed his thirteenth death sentence by a CBI court in the infamous Nithari serial killing case. The CBI court pronounced the sentence in the 16th and final of the Nithari cases that it had been hearing since 2009 – this one was for the abduction, rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman.
Along with this, the court has also imposed a fine of Rs 40 thousand on Koli and Rs 4 thousand on Pandher. Both are already lodged in Dasna jail and are serving sentences in some other cases.
The Allahabad High Court has now acquitted the two in these cases.
