In a significant development, the Allahabad High Court has acquitted the accused, Moninder Singh Pandher, and his domestic help, Surendra Koli, in several cases related to the Nithari killings of 2005-2006 in Noida. These cases had previously resulted in death sentences for the two individuals by a trial court.
Notably, the High Court has exonerated Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases, overturning their previous murder convictions and death penalties handed down by the trial court. A bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SAH Rizvi rendered this decision following the consideration of appeals filed by the two convicts. The verdict, which had been reserved in September, has now been delivered. Advocate Manisha Bhandari represented Moninder Pandher, while Advocate Payoshi Roy represented Surendra Koli in the proceedings.
The Nithari murders occurred between 2005 and 2006 and gained public attention in December 2006 when human remains were discovered in a drain near a residence in Nithari village, Noida. It was subsequently revealed that Moninder Singh Pandher was the property owner, and Surendra Koli served as his domestic assistant.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) assumed responsibility for investigating the case and filed numerous case information reports. Surendra Koli was charged in all cases with various offenses, including murder, abduction, rape, and evidence tampering, while Moninder Singh Pandher was implicated in a case related to immoral trafficking.
Koli was convicted of multiple counts of rape and murder of various girls and received the death penalty in over 10 cases. In July 2017, a special CBI court, presided over by Judge Pawan Kumar Tiwari, found both Pandher and Koli guilty of the murder of a 20-year-old woman, Pinki Sarkar, and sentenced them to death.
Earlier, in 2009, the Allahabad High Court convicted Koli but acquitted Pandher due to a lack of evidence in the murder and rape case of another victim, 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar. Koli’s appeal against this judgment was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011, and a subsequent review plea by Koli was also rejected by the Supreme Court in 2014.
However, on January 28, 2015, the Allahabad High Court, with a bench presided over by the then High Chief Justice (now Chief Justice of India) DY Chandrachud and Justice (since retired) PKS Baghel, commuted Koli’s sentence to life imprisonment due to the significant delay in deciding on Koli’s mercy petition. This verdict was delivered in response to a petition by the Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights.