Nithari Killings: Supreme Court to hear pleas against acquittal of Surendra Koli on March 25

financialexpress.com:

The Supreme Court on Monday scheduled a hearing for March 25 to consider a set of petitions challenging the acquittal of Surendra Koli, a key accused in the infamous Nithari killings that took place in 2005-06 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih directed the registry to urgently retrieve and provide the trial court records from related cases to the lawyers involved.

At the outset of the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), emphasized the gravity of the case, describing the killings as “very serious and gruesome.” He reminded the bench that the case involved horrifying crimes, including allegations of cannibalism, with Koli being implicated as a serial killer who lured young girls to their deaths.

In 2024, the Supreme Court had agreed to examine petitions filed by the CBI, the Uttar Pradesh government, and Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victims, challenging the Allahabad High Court’s decision to acquit both businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli. The High Court had overturned the death sentences handed to both men by the trial court in October 2023.

The Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in 12 of the cases related to the killings, while Pandher was cleared in two. Previously, the trial court had convicted Koli for multiple rapes and murders, sentencing him to death in several cases. Koli and Pandher had been accused of committing heinous crimes involving the abduction, rape, and murder of young girls.

The CBI had registered 16 separate cases against the duo, after the discovery of several human skeletons in a drain near Pandher’s house in Nithari village in December 2006. Pandher