SC upholds Koli's death sentence in Nithari killings

The Supreme Court today upheld Nithari serial killer Surendra Koli's death sentence, describing his crime as horrifying and gruesome. Koli was given the fourth death sentence in the serial killings Dec 22 last year.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence to Surinder Koli for the brutal murder of 14-year-old Rimpa Halder, his first victim in the Nithari serial rape and killing episodes.

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A bench of Justice Markandeya Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra took just 90 minutes to dismiss Koli’s appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict and said: “No mercy can be shown to him. It appears he is a serial killer and in our opinion, the case falls within the category of rarest of the rate cases.”

Koli’s conviction is based on his confession statement and the evidence of two girls who submitted before the trial court that the convict had tried to lure them to come into his employer, Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Noida where he killed several girls including children.

“He would see small girls passing outside the house and lure them inside. He used to strangulate them, tried to have sex with the dead body and then cut-off their parts, cook and eat them,” the bench said.

The court, however, did not pass any judgement on the appeal against Pandher’s acquittal. The bench simply admitted the appeal filed by Rimpa’s father challenging the high court order giving Koli’s employer a clean chit in the case.