[Nithari Killings] Allahabad High Court acquits Surendra Koli and Moninder Pandher; Set aside their death sentence

Allahabad High Court: In an appeal against the Trial Court order and Judgment granting death sentence to Surendra Koli in twelve cases and Moninder Singh Pandher in two cases concerning the Noida serial murder cases (Nithari Killings), the division bench of Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi, JJ. has acquitted both.

Moninder Pandher was the owner of the house and Surendra Koli was his domestic help and hence, both were implicated in the First information report. The FIR was registered against Surendra Koli for offences of murder, abduction, rape, destruction of evidence, and against Moninder Singh Pandher for immoral trafficking. It was alleged that Surendra Koli had raped and killed several girls by chopping off their bodies to pieces before throwing them in the backyard outside their house.

The incident was discovered in December 2006 when skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari village in Noida. Moninder Pandher and Surendra Koli were taken into custody over the disappearance of one of the victims. After Surendra Koli’s confession, the nearby land was dug up and the police discovered the children’s bodies.

In 2009, the Allahabad High Court held Surendra Koli guilty, but acquitted Moninder Pandher due to lack of evidence for the murder and rape of another 14-year-old victim. Thereafter, Surendra Koli filed an appeal against this judgment, however it was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011. A review plea by him was also later dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014. Thereafter, in 2015, the Allahabad High Court, had commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment on account of an inordinate delay in deciding on Surendra Koli’s mercy petition.

In 2017, a special CBI court, held Moninder Pandher and Surendra Koli guilty for killing of a 20-year-old woman, and sentenced them to death.

Source: Press