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The Supreme Court, which has heavily relied on the 2023 acquittal judgments of the Allahabad High Court while setting aside the conviction of Nithari serial killings’ case accused Surendra Koli in a case of rape and murder of a teenage girl — the last case pending against him — has essentially punctured holes in the prosecution’s theory that was primarily based on Koli’s “detailed confession” and the alleged recovery of body parts of the victims.
The Indian Express looks at five reasons why the SC acquitted Koli – infamously known as the “cannibal” of Nithari.
Koli’s confession
As per the prosecution, in his confessional statement, Koli had stated that he strangulated his victims and raped their corpses.
The SC pointed out that Koli’s statement recorded under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the CrPC “was recorded after about 60 days of uninterrupted police custody without meaningful legal aid”.
“The scene was not secured before excavation (of enclosed gallery behind house D 5 at Sector 31 in Noida) began, the alleged disclosure was not contemporaneously recorded, the remand papers carried contradictory versions, and the petitioner was kept in prolonged police custody without a timely, court-directed medical examination,” it said.
From December 29, 2006 to January 14, 2007, Koli was in police custody for 60 days, but was not medically examined to rule out the possibility of physical torture. Later, Koli had, in fact, retracted his confession and alleged that he was tortured in police custody.
In other words, the SC did not treat his confession as voluntary or reliable.
No bloodstains inside house
In its 2023 order, the Allahabad HC had said – “Interestingly, the disclosure made by accused (Koli)… on the basis of which (he) was brought to the place of recovery (of remains) did not contain any reference to the other 15 skulls or body parts hidden at the spot in question.”
As per the SC, “the evidence also showed that the police and members of the public already knew that bones and articles lay in the open strip and that excavation had begun before the petitioner arrived”.
The house that was searched by expert teams did not “yield human bloodstains, remains, or transfer patterns consistent with multiple homicides and dismemberment inside the house”, the SC ruled.
Knives and an axe, the weapons allegedly used to commit the crimes, were exhibited without proof of blood, tissue or hair, it said. “Taken with the absence of incriminating traces within D 5, the supposed weapon link failed,” it added.
“…no credible chain of custody or expert testimony establishing that a domestic help with no medical training could perform the precise dismemberment described. These gaps were central to the acquittals in the twelve cases. They are equally present here,” the court said.
On the forensic record, the Allahabad HC had found an absence of corroboration.
No investigation on organ trade angle
The HC had criticised the investigation as “botched” and recorded that the organ trade angle noted by a committee of the Ministry of Women and Child Development was not probed.
“The investigation did not adequately examine obvious witnesses from the household and neighbourhood and did not pursue material leads, including the organ-trade angle flagged by a governmental committee,” the SC said.
Contradiction in terms of disclosure statement
According to the Allahabad HC, there were material contradictions between the “panchnama narrative and the remand papers”, including a reference to a “joint disclosure by both accused that could not stand with the later version that the petitioner alone led to discovery”.
Earlier, the prosecution had alleged that Koli and Pandher had jointly admitted to kidnapping, raping and murdering one of the victims. This was contrary to the stand of the prosecution which it used to solely implicated Koli.
“Each lapse weakened the provenance and reliability of the evidence and narrowed the path to the truth,” the SC said.
“The offences in Nithari were heinous, and the suffering of the families is beyond measure. It is a matter of deep regret that despite prolonged investigation, the identity of the actual perpetrator has not been established in a manner that meets the legal standards… It is, therefore, genuinely unfortunate that in the present matter negligence and delay corroded the fact-finding process and foreclosed avenues that might have identified the true offender,” it added.
Cleaning of drain where bodies were discovered
The October 2023 HC order, which the SC had heavily relied upon to acquit Koli in the final case, had spoken about the cleaning of the drain where the bodies of the victims had been found between December 20 and December 23, 2006.
Koli had argued that the drain in front of the house (D5) was cleaned between December 20 and December 23, 2006, but the alleged bodies had been recovered only on December 30.
“It is, therefore, highly impossible that bones and biological material deposited in the drain by accused (Koli) prior to 20.12.06 had not been cleaned and remained in the drain only to be recovered on 30.12.06,” the HC had ruled.
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