NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court in its ruling on Tuesday acquitted Surendra Koli in the last remaining murder and rape case related to the brutal Nithari serial killings of 2005-2006 in Noida.
With this decision, Koli will be released from jail unless he is wanted in another case. The top court’s verdict marks a major setback for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the prosecution.
The top court's three-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath pronounced the verdict on Tuesday.
The court, which had reserved its verdict on October 7, allowed Koli’s curative petition challenging the top court's 2011 judgment that had upheld his conviction in one of the cases.
Out of a total of 13 cases registered against Koli, he moved the top court -- by filing a curative petition -- seeking acquittal on the basis of his subsequent acquittal in twelve other cases.
As per law, once a curative petition - the last legal option for any party - is decided by the Supreme Court, the prosecution and investigating agency have nothing left to reopen the case against the accused.
Justice Nath, who pronounced the order for the bench, stated that Koli is acquitted of the charges.
“The curative petition is allowed. The petitioner is acquitted of the charges. The petitioner shall be released forthwith,” the top court said.
Koli had been earlier acquitted in 12 cases by the Allahabad High Court, which found the prosecution evidence unreliable.
Earlier in July last week this year, in a major setback to the CBI, the Supreme Court in its order dismissed as many as 14 appeals filed by CBI, against the order of the Allahabad HC acquitting the accused, Koli in the case.
"There is no perversity in the findings of the Allahabad High Court order acquitting Koli," said, the three-judge bench of the apex court earlier, in its ruling.
The top court had earlier rejected the findings of the CBI, as it found serious lacunae in the probe agency's investigation, as far as Section 27 of the Evidence Act was concerned. It said the recovery of skulls and other belongings of the victims from an open drain was not made by the CBI, following the statement of Koli before the police.
The court had rejected the submissions of the CBI that the Allahabad HC had erred in its verdict acquitting Koli.
While rejecting the appeal of the probe agency, the bench in its order had clarified that any recovery made without recording the statement of the accused by the police is not admissible as evidence under the Evidence law.
"Onlly those recoveries, which are made from a place accessible to the accused only, can be admitted as evidence in a case primarily hinging on circumstantial evidence," the top court had added.
The CBI had last year moved the apex court by filing 14 appeals and challenged the Allahabad High Court's order of acquitting Koli.
Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Koli were accused of rape and murder of people, mostly children from their neighbourhood in Nithari.
Last year, the Supreme Court decided to hear separately the appeals filed by the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the Allahabad High Court’s verdict that acquitted Koli.
Earlier, the apex court had issued a notice and sought a response from the convict on the appeals filed.
In July 2017, the special CBI court judge Pawan Kumar Tiwari, in his verdict, held Pandher and Koli guilty for killing of a 20-year-old woman, Pinki Sarkar, and sentenced them to death for their brutal and diabolical crime.
The Allahabad HC had later, in January, 2015 commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment on account of an inordinate delay in deciding on Koli's mercy petition.
The HC judgement was pronounced by a two-judge bench of then High Court Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud (Now retired CJI) and Justice P K S Baghel (Now retired) on a petition filed by the Peoples' Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).
But, the Allahabad HC had in October last year, however, acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in some of the cases and overturned the death penalty.
The HC had acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases.
While acquitting Pandher and Koli, the HC had censured the investigating agencies including the UP Police and CBI for a very casual probe in the case.
Lal had moved the apex court challenging the acquittal of Pandher and Koli.
The brutal murders came to the public attention and created a scary picture in December 2006, in the small village in Nithari - a distance of 20 odd kilometers from the national capital -- when several skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house at the village in Noida.
The police, after a thorough investigation, revealed that Pandher was the owner of the house and Koli was his domestic help.
The CBI took up the investigation in the matter and arrested Koli and Pandher and accordingly the chargesheet were filed by the probe agency against the duo for their crime.