Supreme Court will hear Nithari Kand case, CBI has challenged Allahabad High Court's decision

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a new petition filed by the CBI, challenging the Allahabad High Court's decision to acquit Surendra Koli, accused in the sensational Nithari murder case of Noida in 2006.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan listed the CBI's plea along with other petitions pending in the apex court against the High Court's October 16, 2023 decision. On July 19, the apex court agreed to hear separate petitions filed by the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh government against the high court verdict.

The court had issued notice to Koli on these petitions and sought his response. In May, the apex court had agreed to hear a petition filed by the father of a victim challenging the high court's decision to acquit Koli in a case related to the Nithari case. In this case, the sessions court had acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher in its verdict delivered on September 28, 2010, while awarding the death penalty to his servant Koli.

The sessions court had said that the prosecution had failed to prove the crime and the investigation was not conducted properly. While overturning the death sentence awarded to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, the high court had said that the prosecution had failed to prove the guilt of both the accused on the set parameters of the case on the basis of circumstantial evidence and the investigation was nothing less than a betrayal of public trust by the responsible agencies.

Pandher and Koli were convicted of murder and rape and sentenced. The High Court had agreed to hear the petitions filed by Koli and Pandher, in which they had challenged the death sentence given by the special CBI court in Ghaziabad. A total of 19 cases were registered against Pandher and Koli in 2007.

The CBI had filed closure reports in three cases due to lack of evidence. Of the remaining 16 cases, Koli was initially acquitted in three and his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in one. The sensational case was exposed on December 29, 2006, when the skeletons of eight children were found in a drain behind Pandher's house in the Nithari area of ​​Noida. Many more skeletons were recovered during digging in the area around the house and searching in the drains.