The Nithari murders took place between 2005 and 2006. The case came to public attention in December 2006 when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida.
On Monday, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic helper, Surendra Koli, in multiple cases related to the Nithari murders that occurred in Noida during 2005-2006. This marks a significant turn of events as both had previously been sentenced to death by a trial court.
It is noteworthy that the Court cleared Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases where they had previously been convicted of homicide and given the death penalty by the trial court.
Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SAH Rizvi of the High Court granted the appeals of the two convicts, a decision that had been pending since September. Moninder Pandher was represented by Manisha Bhandari in court, while Attorney Payoshi Roy represented Surendra Koli.
The Nithari killings took place between 2005 and 2006 when skeletal remains were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida, in December 2006, which subsequently gained significant public attention. It was revealed that Moninder Singh Pandher owned the residence, and Surendra Koli worked as his housekeeper.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted an extensive investigation into the incident and filed multiple case information reports. Surendra Koli faced charges of homicide, abduction, rape, and evidence tampering in each of the cases, while Moninder Singh Pandher was charged in one case related to immoral trafficking.
Koli was eventually found guilty of multiple rapes and murders of young girls, leading to his death sentences in over ten cases. In July 2017, a special CBI court, presided over by Judge Pawan Kumar Tiwari, found both Pandher and Koli guilty of the murder of Pinki Sarkar, a 20-year-old woman, and sentenced them to death.
In 2009, the Allahabad High Court found Koli guilty but exonerated Pandher in the murder and rape case of another victim, 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar, due to insufficient evidence. The Supreme Court rejected Koli’s appeal against this judgment in 2011. In 2014, the Supreme Court also dismissed Koli’s request for a review.
On January 28, 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted Koli’s death sentence to life imprisonment due to an extensive delay in deliberating on Koli’s mercy petition. This decision was made in response to a petition from the People’s Union for Democratic Rights and was issued by a tribunal comprising the then-High Chief Justice (now Chief Justice of India) DY Chandrachud and the retired Justice PKS Baghel.
