Nithari killings | Surendra Koli walks out of jail after 19 years: ‘Would not speak much… hardly anyone came to visit him’, say jail officials

Around 7.15 pm on Wednesday, he stepped out from the jail. When approached by the media, he refused to speak.

Kasna jail officials had on Tuesday said Koli spent his days in prison quietly — sweeping or mopping his cell repeatedly and keeping to himself, rarely interacting with other inmates.

“… He kept to himself… didn’t talk much to others… hardly anyone came to visit him,” said an official of Kasna jail, where Koli has been lodged for close to 14 years.

“He kept cleaning the cell to pass time I think… I often spotted him with a broom in his hand, cleaning the floor, without paying attention to his surroundings,” said another jail official.

In 2023, the Allahabad HC had pointed to a “botched” investigation, aspersions of a coerced confession and procedural lapses by the probe agency, including Koli’s unexplained 60-day custody, while acquitting him in the cases.

Earlier in October this year, while reserving its verdict on Koli’s curative petition, the SC had said there wasn’t any evidence against him except for a statement and the recovery of a kitchen knife.

Speaking to The Indian Express, advocate Yug Chaudhry, who represented Koli in court, said, “He has been in custody for 19 years. He was called the cannibal of Nithari… his family had to change their name, his wife left him, his children… were too embarrassed to admit their parentage or recognise him as their father. His brothers were too scared to even visit him in jail lest they get linked to him and share his misfortune…”

In December 2006, the Nithari serial killings had come to light when skeletal remains of eight children had been discovered from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Noida. Koli worked as a domestic help at Pandher’s house.

The duo were arrested; the police had lodged 19 FIRs against the two in connection with alleged crimes against 19 girls. Koli was accused in 13 cases and Pandher in six.

On October 16, 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two. Both had earlier been awarded the death penalty in these cases relating to rape, murder, and destruction of evidence, among others, by a special Central Bureau of Investigation Court (CBI) court in Ghaziabad.

Pandher had also been acquitted by a trial court in three cases and in one by the HC.

Koli, however, continued to remain in prison, as he was convicted in one of the cases and sentenced to life imprisonment by the HC. It was in this case that he was acquitted yesterday.

Chaudhry added, “Koli was sentenced to death and taken to the gallows twice…. His conviction and death sentence were upheld by the trial court, the High Court, and thrice by the Supreme Court… This is a miscarriage of justice of enormous proportions. The victims, society, and the reputation of the criminal justice system have all taken a beating…”