The Supreme Court has acquitted Nithari case convict Surinder Koli in the last case. The court accepted his curative petition and canceled the sentence. Koli, who has been acquitted in 12 other cases, has been ordered to be released immediately.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Surinder Koli, a convict in the 2006 Nithari serial killing case, and canceled his conviction. A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath ordered that if Koli is not wanted in any other case, he should be released immediately. Justice Nath, who delivered the verdict, said Koli is acquitted of the charges. The Supreme Court said, “The curative petition is allowed. The petitioner is acquitted of the charges. The petitioner will be released forthwith.”
Koli’s sentence canceled
The bench quashed Koli’s conviction in the last remaining case related to the Nithari murder case. He has already been acquitted in 12 cases. The Supreme Court accepted Koli’s curative petition that he had filed against the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision which had confirmed his conviction in a case. After this, Koli had filed a curative petition on the basis of his acquittal in 12 other cases.
Koli’s curative petition in the Supreme Court challenged his conviction in a Nithari murder case. It was argued that the same evidence on the basis of which he was convicted was later found to be unreliable in other cases in which he was acquitted. This was the last remaining sentence against him after the Supreme Court in July this year rejected the appeals filed against the Allahabad High Court verdict. In that decision, he and co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher were acquitted in other cases of the Nithari murder case.
Koli-Pandher were accused of rape and murder of children
In July, the Supreme Court had rejected the appeals of the CBI, the Uttar Pradesh government and the families of the victims against the acquittal of Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Koli by the Allahabad High Court in the 2006 Nithari serial killing case. It had upheld the Allahabad High Court’s order of October 16, 2023, in which Pandher and Koli were acquitted. Both Koli and Pandher were accused of raping and murdering mostly children in a Noida neighborhood in 2005-06.
The Allahabad High Court had on October 16, 2023, acquitted Pandher and Koli in some cases related to the Nithari murder case and overturned the death sentence awarded by the lower court in September 2010. It had acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases in which the lower court had earlier convicted him of murder and awarded him death sentence.
The CBI had registered 16 cases of rape and murder of girls against Koli and Pandher, which shocked the entire country. This matter came to light in December 2006, when skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari village of Noida. Pandher was the owner of that house and Koli was his domestic servant. Koli was accused in all the cases on multiple charges like murder, kidnapping, rape and destruction of evidence. However, Pandher was named in six of these cases. Koli was convicted of raping and murdering several girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases.