‘No leniency’,Koli gets death

Earlier in the day,after hearing the arguments,Judge Singh gave Koli death for the murder,a life term for abduction,seven years imprisonment for the attempted rape on Arti and another seven years for destruction of evidence. The judgment came after 119 hearings and was based on the statements of 46 witnesses,narco-analysis reports as well as scientific and circumstantial evidence.

CBI counsel Suresh Batra pleaded for death saying,“This is a rarest of rare case where Koli had abducted a seven-year-old girl,attempted to rape her and chopped her body into pieces. He is a cancer for the society and he should be hanged till death.” On the other hand,Koli’s lawyer Aadesh Sharma asked for a lighter punishment citing that he had aan ailing mother,a son and a daughter to look after.

In the 41-page judgment,the Judge said,“For this kind of crime,he does not deserve any sympathy. The crime committed by him has shaken the foundation of peace in the society… Our law does not have a provision for punishment beyond death,otherwise even death sentence is small for him.” The judgment added: “If the law is lenient towards him,it will affect the faith of people in the law.”

This is the second case in which Koli has been given death sentence by the CBI court. Last February,he had been given the capital punishment for the rape and murder of Rimpa Haldar. Koli is the main accused in 19 cases of murder of children and women at Pandher’s D-5 residence in Nithari village.