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Nithari murders case: CBI may challenge Surinder Koli acquittal, not Moninder Singh Pandher’s
The CBI will challenge the acquittal of Surinder Koli in the Nithari murders case, while not appealing the acquittal of Moninder Singh Pandher.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will challenge the Allahabad high court’s acquittal of Noida resident Surinder Koli in a raft of cases linked to the grisly 2006 murders in Nithari of at least 19 victims, women and young children among them, officials familiar with the development said, adding that the grounds for appeal are being studied.
A two-judge bench of the high court last month acquitted Koli, 42, in 12 cases and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher, 65,in two cases, slamming the shoddy investigation that appeared to have hobbled the prosecution.
CBI officials said the challenge will be against Koli’s acquittal only, and not against Pandher since the evidence against him was weak.The CBI had never charged Pandher for the murders; only for immoral trafficking in one of the 16 cases. He was summoned as accused along with Koli by the court in five cases. Both were eventually awarded death sentences.
“We will appeal against the acquittal of Surinder Koli by the Allahabad high court. There is substantial evidence that he was involved in the murders of children and women. The judgment is being studied by our investigators and legal team,” said a senior CBI officer, who didn’t want to be named.
Asked about CBI’s plans to appeal against Pandher, the officer said quoted above said, “As we have stated earlier, evidence on Pandher’s involvement in the murders was always weak. We exonerated him at the time of filing charge sheets as well”.
Nithari killings: Who is Surendra Koli? A recap of chilling case
The CBI has 90 days’ time to file an appeal from the date the Allahabad high court pronounced the judgment on October 17.
The brutal murders first came to light in December 2006 when skeletal remains, skulls, bones and other material belonging to victims, were found stuffed in plastic bags in the backyard and drain outside Pandher’s bungalow in Noida sector 31. The police then registered the missing complaints and FIRs.
The victims, children aged five to 14 and women aged up to 25 years, went missing over a period of one and half years.
The brutal crimes set off waves of outrage and anger that swept the Capital, especially as charges of cannibalism and sexual assault took shape. The two men were arrested in the same month. While Koli, a caretaker at Pandher’s house, was charged with rape, abduction and murder, the CBI in its charge sheet only charged Pandher in one case under the Immoral Trafficking Act. The two accused were sentenced to death in a string of cases, as recently as in 2017.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case on January 11, 2007. In all, 16 cases were filed. Koli was charged with abduction, rape and murder in all 13 cases. Pandher, on the other hand, was only charged in one case. He was later summoned as co-accused with Koli in five cases by a CBI court.
Read Here | ‘Nithari murder probe botched up, public trust betrayed’: Allahabad HC’s top 6 quotes
On the strength of the case against Koli, a second CBI officer aware of the development said, “the Supreme Court had upheld his death sentence, which says a lot about the quality of evidence.”
In its 308-page judgment acquitting the two accused, the Allahabad high court sharply criticised the investigation and repeatedly underlined wanton flouting of norms that rendered the case weak and evidence inadmissible.
“The casual and perfunctory manner in which important aspects of arrest, recovery and confession have been dealt with are most disheartening, to say the least,” said the division bench of justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi in its order on October 17.
“The investigation otherwise is botched up, and basic norms of collecting evidence have been brazenly violated,” the judges added.
Prior to the Allahabad court’s judgment, Koli was acquitted in three cases, and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life imprisonment. There were six cases against Pandher. He was acquitted in four cases earlier.
