NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear separately the appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the Allahabad High Court’s verdict acquitting Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari killings in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The pleas were listed for hearing on Tuesday before a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih.
One of the lawyers appearing in the case urged the bench to take up the pleas urgently, citing that it was an “extraordinary case” in which children had gone missing in Nithari for nearly two years before skeletal remains were discovered by the police. The court said it would take up the matter on 3 April.
Earlier, the top court had issued a notice and sought a response from Koli on the appeals filed by the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh government. It also tagged these appeals with petitions filed by the father and relatives of one of the victims, which are already pending before the court.
In July 2017, a special CBI court, presided over by Judge Pawan Kumar Tiwari, had found Moninder Singh Pandher and Koli guilty of murdering a 20-year-old woman, Pinki Sarkar, sentencing them to death for what it described as a brutal and diabolical crime.
The Allahabad High Court had earlier, in January 2015, commuted Koli’s death sentence to life imprisonment, citing an inordinate delay in deciding his mercy petition.
The judgment was delivered by a two-judge bench comprising then High Court Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud (now retired Chief Justice of India) and Justice P K S Baghel (now retired) in response to a petition filed by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
However, in October last year, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and Koli in several cases related to the Nithari killings, overturning the death sentences imposed on them by the trial court. The court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two, where they had previously been found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
While delivering its verdict, the High Court strongly criticised the investigating agencies, including the Uttar Pradesh Police and the CBI, for conducting a “very casual probe” into the case.
During a hearing on 8 July, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, described Koli as a serial killer who lured young girls before killing them. “The killings were gruesome,” he said, adding that there were also accusations of cannibalism. He pointed out that the trial court had awarded Koli the death penalty, but the Allahabad High Court overturned the decision last year.
In a related development, on 4 May last year, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a detailed response after hearing a plea filed by the father of one of the victims, who had challenged the Allahabad High Court’s acquittal order.
The top court had earlier issued notices to all relevant parties following a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victims. Lal moved the apex court contesting the acquittal of Pandher and Koli, and was represented by lawyers Geeta Luthra, Shivani Luthra Lohiya, and others.
The brutal murders came to public attention in December 2006, when skeletal remains were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari, a village about 20 kilometres from the national capital. Following an investigation, the police identified Pandher as the owner of the house and Koli as his domestic help.
The CBI later took over the investigation, arrested both Pandher and Koli, and subsequently filed a chargesheet against them.
