Nithari Killings: Allahabad HC acquits Surinder Koli, Maninder Pandher in 12 cases

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Allahabad high court has acquitted prime accused in the Nithari serial rape and murder case, Surinder Koli, and co-accused Maninder Singh Pandher in a clutch of cases. Both were awarded death penalty by a CBI court.

Koli was acquitted in 12 cases in which he was handed death sentence. Pandher was acquitted in two cases where he was sentenced to death.

A two-judge bench of justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi held that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the two beyond reasonable doubt.
Sixteen cases were filed against Koli and six against Pandher. With the sessions and high court acquitting him in the remaining four cases earlier, Pandher now has no cases against him and is free to be released, his lawyer Manisha Bhandari told media persons in Prayagraj.

Koli, however, will remain in jail under a separate life imprisonment order.
The court held that the two main circumstances relied upon by the CBI court against Koli — his own confession that he killed, dismembered and even ate the bodies and disclosure leading to recovery of biological material including body parts of the victims — was clearly not proved. «The possibility of organ trade being the cause of killings in Nithari, particularly when the resident of adjoining house i.e.

House No. D-6, Sector-31, Noida, had been arrested earlier in case of kidney scam has not been properly probed/inquired. The plausibility of innocence of accused SK (Koli) cannot thus be eliminated and it cannot be said with any definiteness that the offence of rape, cannibalism, murder and concealment of evidence is established beyond reasonable doubt against accused...» the HC said.