Apex court to take up CBI appeal against High Court verdict

New Delhi, July 8

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the CBI’s petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court’s verdict acquitting Surendra Koli in the sensational 2006 Nithari serial killings cases.

A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai asked Koli to respond to separate petitions filed by the CBI against the high court’s October 16, 2023 verdict.

The top court had in May agreed to take up a petition filed by the father of one of the victims challenging the high court’s order. The CBI’s petitions would be taken up for hearing along with that petition.

Citing lack of evidence, the Allahabad High Court on October 16, 2023, acquitted domestic help Surendra Koli and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher – who were awarded the death penalty in the 2006 Nithari serial killings cases.

While Koli was awarded the death penalty in 12 cases by the trial court, Pandher faced the capital punishment in two for allegedly raping and murdering minor children at the latter’s house in Nithari in Noida, near Delhi.

“Upon evaluation of the evidence led in this case, on the touchstone of fair trial guaranteed to an accused under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, we hold that prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of accused SK (Surendra Koli) and Pandher beyond reasonable doubt, on the settled parameters of a case based on circumstantial evidence,” a Division Bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice SHA Rizvi of the Allahabad HC had said.

The sensational killings came to light following the discovery of the skeletal remains of eight children from the drain behind Pandher’s house on December 29, 2006.