Nithari serial killings case: Allahabad High Court commutes Surinder Koli's death penalty to life imprisonment

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday commuted Nithari serial killer Surinder Koli's death sentence to life imprisonment. 

Allahabad High Court

The order was passed by a Division Bench of the Court comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PKS Baghel in a Public Interest Litigation filed by a NGO, the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), challenging the death sentence awarded to Surendra Koli, the prime accused in the Nithari serial killings case.

Koli himself filed a petition before the Court challenging the death sentence on the same grounds as the ones raised in the PIL.

The Nithari killings pertain to the horrific discovery in December 2009 of body parts in a drain behind the bungalow of businessman MS Pandher, whose servant Koli was.

The remains were of the 19 young women and children from Nithari village allegedly raped and killed by Koli in the Pandher bungalow. The Nithari killings came to light in December 2006 when several families in Nithari village, close to Pandher's house in Noida, complained to the police about their children, especially minor girls, going missing. 

 

Koli, who worked as the domestic servant of the Noida-based businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was awarded death sentence for the murder of a 14-year-old girl, Rimpa Haldar. 

Both were awarded death sentence in the murder case but Pandher was later acquitted by the Allahabad High Court. Pandher was later released on bail. Koli's death sentence was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and later, the Supreme Court. 

His mercy petition was rejected by the President of India. After that, the trial court had issued a death warrant on September 2 last year fixing the date of execution as September 12. But his hanging was stayed in the last minute by the Apex Court which decided to hear his right to recall the death sentence in an open court. 

The PIL was filed by PUDR on October 31 last year, three days after the Supreme Court rejected Koli's petition to recall the death sentence awarded to him by a special CBI court in February 2009. 

Rejection of the recall application had cleared the docks for execution of the death sentence, when the same was stayed by the High Court on October 31 as it decided to admit and hear the PILon merits. 

The PUDR had approached the Allahabad High Court with the plea that Koli deserved mercy on humanitarian grounds as he had to go through "mental torment" for more than five years when he languished in jail awaiting verdicts in his appeals and mercy petitions. 

In the PIL, PUDR contended that the period elapsed in the disposal of Koli's mercy petition was "3 years and 3 months" and, as such, execution of the death penalty would be violative of the Right to Life granted in Article 21 of the Constitution.

The Allahabad High Court accepted the contentions of the NGO as well as Surinder Koli and commuted Koli’s death penalty to imprisonment for life.