SC to review Allahabad high court’s acquittal of Nithari killing accused Surendra Koli | India News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear petitions submitted by the CBI, challenging the Allahabad high court‘s judgment that acquitted Surendra Koli in the notorious Nithari serial killings case of 2006.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan requested a response from Koli regarding the separate pleas filed by the CBI against the high court’s ruling on October 16, 2023.
In May, the apex court had agreed to hear a plea filed by the father of one of the victims, contesting the high court’s decision. The bench said that the CBI’s pleas would be heard alongside this petition.
The gruesome killings were brought to light when skeletal remains of eight children were discovered in a drain behind a house in Nithari, Noida, bordering the national capital, on December 29, 2006. Additional skeletal remains were found upon further excavation and searches of drains in the vicinity of the house. The majority of these remains belonged to underprivileged children and young women who had gone missing from the area. The CBI took over the case within 10 days, and their search efforts led to the recovery of more remains.
The Allahabad high court overturned the convictions of Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli in the infamous Nithari serial murder case. The gruesome crimes, which took place between 2005 and 2006 in Pandher’s house located in Sector-31 of Noida, near Nithari village in Uttar Pradesh, India, had previously resulted in the sentencing of both men to death.
The Nithari case deeply disturbed the nation and triggered widespread public outrage. Parents of the missing victims expressed anger over the safety of their children and the performance of the justice system, which resulted in significant delays in delivering justice.
Legal proceedings in the case continued for several years, commencing in 2006. It was only in 2023 that the Allahabad high court acquitted Surinder Koli in 12 cases related to the Nithari serial killings.