Nithari killings case: SC allows curative petition of Surendra Koli

New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a curative petition filed by Surendra Koli challenging his conviction and death sentence in one of the Nithari murder cases.

With the apex court allowing the curative plea, Koli will now be a free man as he is already acquitted in other Nithari cases.

The Nithari killings came to light with the discovery of skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh's Pandher's house at Nithari in Noida on December 29, 2006.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, which had heard Koli's petition in the open court.

Koli was convicted for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Noida's Nithari village, and his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court in February 2011.

His review plea was dismissed in 2014.

However, in January 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment due to an inordinate delay in the decision on his mercy petition.

In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli and co-accused Pandher in several other Nithari cases, overturning the death sentences awarded by the trial court in 2017.

The court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two.

The CBI and the victims' families later challenged these acquittals before the Supreme Court, but the top court dismissed all 14 appeals on July 30 this year.