In a major development in the long-running Nithari killings saga, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of Surendra Koli in a case involving the rape and murder of a teenage girl. Koli had been convicted in multiple cases linked to the Nithari serial murders.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Vikram Nath allowed Koli’s curative petition and cancelled his conviction in the particular case, directing that he be released from custody if he is not required in any other pending case.
Background: The Nithari Case
The Nithari case, one of the most horrifying crime episodes in India’s history, surfaced on December 29, 200,6, when skeletal remains of eight children were found in a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s residence in Noida.
Koli, who worked as a domestic help at Pandher’s home, was arrested alongside him soon after.
Subsequent searches uncovered more bones and body parts, mostly belonging to children and young women from economically weaker backgrounds who had been reported missing from the locality.
Investigators alleged abduction, sexual assault, murder, suspected cannibalism, and disposal of bodies in drains and the backyard.
Legal Journey and Previous Verdicts
Koli and Pandher faced numerous criminal cases arising from the incident.
Special CBI courts in Ghaziabad earlier handed down death sentences to both in multiple matters concerning rape, murder, and destruction of evidence.
However, on October 16, 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two, criticizing investigative shortcomings.
Pandher had already been acquitted earlier in four other cases while being convicted under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act in a separate proceeding for which he had served the sentence.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed appeals by the CBI and victims’ families challenging those acquittals.
Despite this, Koli remained in jail due to his conviction in one particular case — the killing of a 14-year-old girl — where the High Court had upheld his conviction and death sentence.
Koli’s appeal against this conviction was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2011, and his review plea also failed. In 2015, citing an extraordinary delay in deciding his mercy petition, the Allahabad High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Overall, authorities registered 19 FIRs in connection with crimes against 19 victims in the Nithari case.
Latest Supreme Court Order
With Tuesday’s ruling cancelling his conviction in the last remaining case against him, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for Koli’s release, provided no other criminal proceedings remain pending against him.
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