Nithari killings: SC notice to U.P. on plea against acquittal of Koli, Pandher

A bench headed by justice BR Gavai issued the notice on a petition filed by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victims

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition challenging the Allahabad High Court’s order, passed in October last year, acquitting Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli, the accused in the Nithari killings of 2005-06.

The bench, also comprising justices SC Sharma and Sandeep Mehta, felt that a case was made out to consider the high court order that reversed the elaborate finding of conviction by the trial court. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

A bench headed by justice BR Gavai issued the notice on a petition filed by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victims, who questioned the high court’s judgment that set aside the trial court’s order sentencing Koli to death for the rape and murder of the petitioner’s daughter. The petitioner was one among the 16 cases investigated by the UP Police. Considering the gruesome killings of the victims, comprising women and children of Nithari, a village adjacent to Noida, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2007.

The bench, also comprising justices SC Sharma and Sandeep Mehta, felt that a case was made out to consider the high court order that reversed the elaborate finding of conviction by the trial court. Seeking response of the UP government and Koli, the bench called for the records from the trial court and the high court.

As per the prosecution, Koli was a servant working in the house of Moninder Singh Pandher in Sector 31, Noida. Koli enticed the victims and then raped and killed them. He then used to chop the bodies, eat the torso and throw the skull clothes and remaining part of the bodies in the drain. It was at his instance, the police recovered 16 skulls and clothes and slippers of the victims near the drain behind the house.

The high court order said that the investigation was botched up and basic norms of collecting evidence were brazenly violated. “It appears to us that the investigation opted for the easy course of implicating a poor servant of the house by demonizing him, without taking due care of probing more serious aspects of possible involvement of organized activity of organ trading.”

Following the trial conducted in the 16 cases, both Pandher and Koli were acquitted in three cases. In the remaining 13 cases, Koli was sentenced to death while Pandher was sentenced to death in only two cases. In one of these cases, the Supreme Court in 2011 has already confirmed capital punishment for Koli.