Nithari Killings | Supreme Court Posts CBI's Appeals Against Acquittal Of Surendra Koli For Final Hearing In March

The Supreme Court today posted for final hearing the pleas challenging acquittal of Surendra Koli, one of the accused in Noida serial murder cases of 2005-2006 (Nithari Kand). The hearing is expected to take place on March 25, 2025.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih passed the order, upon hearing Advocate Payoshi Roy (for Koli) who submitted that the "rather shocking" and only evidence in the case is a confessional statement, which was recorded after 60 days of custody and in which Koli said that he was tortured. Highlighting that the custody is ongoing, she prayed that the matter be listed for final disposal in March.

Posting the matter to March, the Court directed the Registry to call for the Trial Court Records and supply copy of the same to the parties.

To recap, the Nithari killings came to light in December 2006 when skeletal remains of several children/women were recovered from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house in Noida's Nithari. Following an investigation, Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli were booked by the CBI inter-alia for murder and rape.

The duo was convicted and sentenced to death - Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases.

However, in October 2023, a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and Koli for lack of evidence. Raising questions regarding the manner of investigation, the High Court pulled up CBI for 'completely overlooking' the strong possibility of organ trade being an actual reason behind murders, considering that the resident of the house adjoining Pandher's had been arrested earlier in case of a kidney scam.

“It appears to us that the investigation opted for the easy course of implicating a poor servant of the house by demonizing him, without taking due care of probing more serious aspects of possible involvement of organized activity of organ trading", the High Court observed.

It was further found shocking that Koli's confession was recorded after 60 days of police remand without any medical examination. The High Court noted that no legal aid was provided to Koli and torture allegations levelled by him were not probed. Flagging concern regarding the denial of a fair trial to the accused, the High Court said,

"The procedure required to be followed for recording the accused's disclosure leading to recovery of biological remains i.e. skulls, bones and skeleton etc. has been given a complete go by. The casual and perfunctory manner in which important aspects of arrest, recovery and confession have been dealt with are most disheartening, to say the least.”

It was further observed that the Magistrate had not recorded his satisfaction about Koli's confession being voluntary and had merely used the expression 'seems' which could not be treated as the belief of voluntariness of confession in terms of Section 164 CrPC.

Aggrieved by the acquittal, CBI (and others) filed petitions before the Supreme Court, on which notice was issued in July, 2024.

About Nithari Killings

The Nithari murders came to light in December 2006, when skeletons were found in a drain near a house in Nithari, Noida. During course of investigation, it was found that Pandher was the owner of the house and Koli was his domestic help. Hence, both were named in the FIRs.

The CBI registered a total of 16 cases, charge-sheeting Koli in all of them for murder, abduction, and rape besides destruction of evidence, and Pandher in one for immoral trafficking. A Ghaziabad court, however, summoned Pandher in five other cases after several victims' families approached it.

As per CBI, Koli killed several girls by chopping off their bodies to pieces before throwing them in the backyard of Pandher's house. Reportedly, bodies of a total of 19 victims were found in the backyard of the house.

Case Title: State through Central Bureau of Investigation v. Surendra Koli, Diary No. 15138-2024 (and connected cases)