Allahabad High Court has acquitted Nithari killings case prime accused Surendra Koli in 12 cases in which he was awarded a death penalty by the trial Court. Koli was sentenced to death over 10 cases in connection with the Nithari killings.
Moninder Singh Pandher has been acquitted in two cases in which he was awarded the death penalty.
Surendra Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher are the accused and co-accused in the infamous Nithari murders of UP’s Noida. Koli was found guilty of raping and murdering several children between 2005 and 2006.
Allahabad High Court 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.
The High Court acquitted the culprits on the basis of no direct evidence and witnesses.
What is the Nithari Case
The gruesome case came to light in December 2006 when skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari village of Uttar Pradesh’s Noida.
It was alleged that Koli would lure the children to the house, offering them sweets and chocolates, murder them, and have sex with the corpses. He was also accused of cannibalism. He would throw the bones and other body parts into a ditch behind the house.
His employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was co-accused of brutal murder and rape in the Nithari case. Koli and Pandher carried out the serial killings between 2005 and 2006.
Blow to CBI
The Allahabad High Court decision comes as a big blow to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), whose Ghaziabad court had awarded the death sentence to both the accused.
In the 2005 Rimpa Halder murder case, however, both the High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence of Surendra Kohli.
On the basis of this evidence, both were given death sentence in the Rimpa Halder murder case.
After the High Court completed the hearing on the applications, the court had reserved its judgment on September 15.
The division bench of Justice Ashwini Kumar Mishra and Justice SHA Rizvi gave the decision.
The first of the existing twelve petitions of Surendra Koli was filed in the year 2010.
However, apart from these petitions, the High Court has also disposed of some of Koli’s petitions.
While Allahabad HC has acquitted Koli in 12 cases, his death sentence has been upheld in one case, whereas in another case, on the basis of delay, it has been converted into life imprisonment.
On behalf of the accused, it was argued in the court that there is no eyewitness to this incident. He was convicted and sentenced to death only on the basis of scientific and circumstantial evidence.
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