The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a fresh petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Allahabad High Court's verdict that acquitted Surendra Koli in the sensational 2006 Nithari serial killings case.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan tagged the CBI's plea with some other petitions pending in the apex court against the high court order of October 16, 2024.
On July 19, the top court had agreed to hear a separate petitions filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and CBI against the high court verdict. The apex court has also issued notice to Koli.
In May, the Supreme Court also agreed to hear another plea filed by the father of one of the victims challenging the high court's verdict acquitting Koli in one of the cases where he was awarded death penalty.
In December 2006, the news of Nithari murders shook the nation, when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village in Noida. Moninder Singh Pandher was the owner of the house, and Koli worked there as a domestic help.
The case was taken over by the CBI and eventually multiple cases were filed against the duo.
Surendra Koli was accused for murder, abduction, rape, and the destruction of evidence, while Moninder Singh Pandher was charged in a immoral trafficking case.
Koli was accused of committing multiple rapes and murders of several girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases.
In 2017, a special CBI court held Pandher and Koli guilty for killing a 20-year-old woman and sentenced them to death.
In 2009, the Allahabad High Court held Koli guilty but acquitted Pandher due to lack of evidence for the murder and rape of another victim, 14-year-old girl. Koli appealed against this verdict in the Supreme Court in 2011. The top court junked this plea.
In 2014, the apex court again dismissed a review petition filed by Koli.
In January 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment on account of an inordinate delay in decision on Koli's mercy petition.
Incidentally, CJI DY Chandrachud who was then the Chief Justice of high court had delivered the decision of commuting the death penalty to life sentence.