The Allahabad High Court on Monday cleared Nithari main accused Surinder Koli of all charges in 12 cases. His employer and co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher (above) was also acquitted in two cases. (File photo/Reuters)
The high court had on Monday acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in the sensational 2006 Nithari serial killings in which they were facing death sentence
Moninder Singh Pandher, accused in Nithari killings, walked out of jail today, days after he was acquitted in the case by the Allahabad High Court. The high court had on Monday acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in the sensational 2006 Nithari serial killings in which they were facing death sentence.
The Allahabad High Court held that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” and that the investigation was “botched up”.
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Reversing the death sentence given to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, the high court noted that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of both the accused “beyond reasonable doubt, on the settled parameters of a case based on circumstantial evidence” and the probe was “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
VIDEO | Nithari case accused Moninder Singh Pandher, who was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court earlier this week, walks out of Luksar jail in Greater Noida. pic.twitter.com/kK52Qzm0fM— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 20, 2023
The two were charged with rape and murder and sentenced to death in the killings that horrified the nation with the details on sexual assault, brutal murder and hints of possible cannibalism. While Koli is in a Ghaziabad prison, Pandher is lodged in a Noida jail.
What is the Nithari Case
The gruesome case came to light in December 2006 when skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari village of Uttar Pradesh’s Noida.
It was alleged that Koli would lure the children to the house, offering them sweets and chocolates, murder them, and have sex with the corpses. He was also accused of cannibalism. He would throw the bones and other body parts into a ditch behind the house.
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His employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was co-accused of brutal murder and rape in the Nithari case. Koli and Pandher carried out the serial killings between 2005 and 2006.