Nithari killings: Allahabad HC acquits Surinder Koli, Moninder Pandher, cancels death penalty

On Monday, October 16, the Allahabad High Court acquitted the two main accused in one of India’s most shocking murder mysteries, the Nithari murder case. The court said they found accused Surinder Koli innocent in the 12 cases filed against him, while co-accused Moninder Singh Pandher was found innocent in 2 cases.

With this order from the court, the death sentences given to the accused Koli and Pandher stand cancelled.

"Allahabad High Court has acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher in the appeals against his death sentence in two cases. There were a total of six cases against him, of which he was already acquitted in four. Koli has been acquitted in all appeals against him. Now no case is pending against Maninder Singh Pandher in the Nithari case. He will be released from jail,” Pandher’s lawyer, Manisha Bhandari, told reporters after the hearing. A detailed judgment from the court will be provided at a later date.

The case of Nithari serial killings goes back to 2006 when several human remains were found in and around Moninder Singh Pandher's apartment in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The chilling details of the case shocked the entire nation, resulting in Koli and Pandher's arrest and later conviction.

On December 26, 2006, Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help, Surinder Koli, were arrested after the police recovered multiple skeletons and other belongings of missing children from the drain outside his house in the Nithari area of Noida.

A lower court gave Koli the death penalty after finding him guilty of raping, killing, and disposing of the bodies of his victims in the backyard and drain of his home. On February 15, 2011, the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction and confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Koli was booked in 16 cases and sentenced to death in 12. Meanwhile, Pandher was convicted in some cases and acquitted in a few others.

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