Supreme Court fixes March 25 for hearing on petitions challenging acquittal of Nithari murder case accused Surendra Koli

A series of appeals against Surendra Koli’s acquittal in the 2005–06 Noida Nithari murders were scheduled for consideration by the Supreme Court on Monday, March 25.

A bench consisting of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih ordered its registry to promptly summon trial court documents in other related cases and provide copies to the attorneys involved.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court at the beginning of the hearing that it concerned the “very serious and gruesome” deaths that took place in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh.

The Allahabad High Court’s decision to acquit businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic assistant Surendra Koli was challenged in 2024 by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victim girls, the Uttar Pradesh government, and the CBI in separate appeals that the top court consented to review.

Koli was a serial murderer who used to entice young girls and murder them, Mehta had previously informed the supreme court. Koli had been given the death sentence by the lower court, but the Allahabad High Court overturned that decision because he claimed the deaths were “gruesome” and that there were charges of cannibalism.

In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court reversed the death sentence that the trial court had handed on Pandher and his domestic assistant Surendra Koli, acquitting them in certain of the instances pertaining to the Nithari murders.

It had cleared Koli in 12 instances and Pandher in two cases where the trial court had previously found them guilty of murder and sentenced them to death.

In connection with the shocking rape and murder of females, the CBI has filed 16 charges against Koli and Pandher.

Skeletons found in a sewer next to a home in Nithari village, Noida, in December 2006 brought the issue to the public’s notice. Koli was Pandher’s domestic assistant, and Pandher owned the home.

In every instance, Koli was charged with a variety of offenses, such as rape, murder, kidnapping, and evidence destruction. But in six of them, Pandher was mentioned.

Koli received death sentences in over ten instances after being found guilty of raping and killing many females.