The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a fresh plea filed by the CBI challenging the Allahabad High Court’s verdict that acquitted Surendra Koli in the high-profile 2006 Nithari serial killings case.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan has tagged the CBI’s plea with other petitions pending in the apex court related to the high court’s order dated October 16, 2024.
The Supreme Court, on July 19, agreed to hear separate pleas filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Uttar Pradesh government against the high court’s verdict. The Court had also issued a notice and sought a response from Koli regarding the petitions.
The Supreme Court had agreed in May to hear a plea filed by the father of one of the victims challenging the Allahabad High Court’s verdict that acquitted Surendra Koli in one of the cases. In this case, Moninder Singh Pandher was acquitted by the sessions court, while Koli was awarded the death penalty on September 28, 2010.
The high court had acquitted domestic help Pandher and his employer Koli in the case where they faced the death sentence, ruling that the prosecution failed to prove their guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” and that the investigation was “botched up.” The high court reversed the death sentence given to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, noting that the prosecution had not proven the guilt of both accused “beyond reasonable doubt, on the settled parameters of a case based on circumstantial evidence” and that the investigation was “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
Pandher and Koli were charged with rape and murder in the killings that shocked the nation with details of sexual assault, brutal murder, and possible cannibalism. The high court allowed multiple appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who had challenged the death sentence awarded by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad.
In total, 19 cases were lodged against Pandher and Koli in 2007. The CBI filed closure reports in three cases due to lack of evidence. In the remaining 16 cases, Koli was earlier acquitted in three, and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life imprisonment.
The sensational killings were uncovered with the discovery of the skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind Pandher’s house in Nithari, Noida, on December 29, 2006. Further searches of drains in the area led to the recovery of more remains, most of which belonged to poor children and young women who had gone missing from the area. Within 10 days, the CBI took over the case, and its search resulted in the recovery of additional remains.
