Nithari killings: Supreme Court acquits Surendra Koli in last pending case; orders release

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Surendra Koli, who was convicted in the 2006 Nithari serial killings case, and set aside his conviction. A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath ordered his immediate release if not wanted in any other case.

Justice Nath, who pronounced the order, stated that Koli is acquitted of the charges. “The curative petition is allowed. The petitioner is acquitted of the charges. The petitioner shall be released forthwith”, the top court said. The bench set aside the conviction of Koli in the last remaining case related to the Nithari killings. He has been acquitted in 12 cases already.

The apex court allowed the curative petition filed by Koli against the 2011 judgement of the Supreme Court, which had confirmed his conviction in one of the cases. Koli then filed a curative petition based on his subsequent acquittal in 12 other cases.

Koli’s curative petition before the top court challenged his conviction in one of the Nithari killings cases, contending that the same evidence used to convict him was later found unreliable in the other cases where he has since been acquitted.

This was the last remaining conviction against him after the apex court in July this year dismissed appeals against the Allahabad High Court judgement acquitting him and co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher in other Nithari killings cases.

In July, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of CBI, the Uttar Pradesh government and victims’ families against the acquittal of Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Koli by the Allahabad High Court in the 2006 Nithari serial killings case. It had upheld the Allahabad High Court order of October 16, 2023, which had acquitted Pandher and Koli.

Both Koli and Pandher were accused of rape and murder, mostly of children in the neighbourhood of Noida in 2005-06. The Allahabad High Court had, on October 16, 2023, acquitted Pandher and Koli in some of the cases concerning the Nithari killings and overturned the death penalty imposed on them by the trial court in September 2010.

It had acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, where they were earlier held guilty for murder and awarded the death penalty by the trial court in these cases. The CBI had registered 16 cases against Koli and Pandher over the rape and killing of girls that had shocked the nation.

The case came to public attention in December 2006 when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida. Pandher was the owner of the house, and Koli was his domestic help.

Koli was made an accused in all of the cases on various charges, including murder, abduction, rape, and the destruction of evidence. However, Pandher was named in six of them. Koli was convicted of committing multiple rapes and murders of various girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases. (ANI)