The Supreme Court on Monday posted for hearing on March 25 a batch of appeals against the Allahabad High Court order acquitting Surendra Koli – a death row convict – in 12 cases of rape and murder that took place in Nithari village, NOIDA bordering with Delhi in 2005/2006.

A bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih directed the top court Registry to summon the trial court records in other connected matters expeditiously and supply its copies to the advocates appearing in the matter.

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On July 8, 2024, the top court had issued notice on a plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Allahabad High Court’s acquitting Surendra Koli. While issuing notice, the court had tagged the CBI’s plea along with other pending matters relating to the cases.

The Uttar Pradesh government and Pappu Lal, father of one of the victim girls too have approached the apex court challenging the state High Court’s order of acquitting businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Koli in 2005/2006 killings. Koli was the domestic help of the businessman Maninder Singh Pandher and stayed at his house where the alleged killings took place.

In the course of the July 8, 2024, hearing, the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI argued that Koli was a serial killer who used to lure young girls and kill them.The SG had said that the killings were “gruesome” and there were accusations of cannibalism and the trial court had awarded the death penalty to Koli, but the same had been reversed by the Allahabad High Court.

The Allahabad High Court in October, 2023, had acquitted Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in some of the cases concerning the Nithari killings and overturned the death penalty imposed on them by the trial court. It had acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases, where they were earlier held guilty for murder and awarded the death penalty by the trial court in these cases.

The CBI had registered 16 cases against Koli and Pandher over rape and killing of girls that had shocked the nation.The case came to public attention in December 2006 when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida. Pandher was the owner of the house and Koli was his domestic help.

Koli was made accused in all of the cases on various charges including murder, abduction, rape, and the destruction of evidence. However, Pandher was named in six of them. Koli was convicted of committing multiple rapes and murders of various girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases.