Nithari Killings Verdict: Allahabad High Court Acquits Moninder Singh Pandher And Surendra Koli In Multiple Cases

The Allahabad High Court has acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help, Surendra Koli, in several cases related to the infamous Nithari killings of 2005-2006. The trial court had earlier sentenced them to death in these cases. Specifically, Koli was acquitted in 12 cases, while Pandher was acquitted in 2 cases. The verdict comes after the High Court bench, consisting of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SAH Rizvi, allowed the appeals filed by the convicts. The case gained public attention in 2006 when human remains were discovered near Pandher's Nithari village residence in Noida.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case and filed multiple reports. Koli was implicated in numerous cases, including charges of murder, abduction, rape, and evidence tampering. He was initially sentenced to death in over 10 cases. In 2017, a special CBI court found both Pandher and Koli guilty of the murder of Pinki Sarkar, a 20-year-old woman, sentencing them to death.

This isn't the first time the verdicts have shifted. In 2009, the Allahabad High Court found Koli guilty but acquitted Pandher in another case due to a lack of evidence. Although Koli's appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed in 2011, the Allahabad High Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 2015 due to an extended delay in deciding on Koli's mercy petition.

The details of the judgment are awaited, and the case remains a somber reminder of a gruesome chapter in Indian criminal history.

Author: Anushka Taraniya

News Writer, MIT ADT University