Nithari killings case: Allahabad High Court acquits Surinder Koli, Moninder Pandher

In 10 of the cases, Koli was the sole accused while in two cases he was accused along with Pandher.

While Pandher is expected to walk free, his lawyer said, Koli will remain in prison as he is serving life sentence in another case related to the Nithari killings.

“Upon evaluation of the evidence…, 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… beyond reasonable doubt,” a bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi said, acquitting Koli and Pandher in a case in which both were sentenced to death in 2017.

Pulling up the investigators, it said, “The investigation otherwise is botched up and basic norms of collecting evidence have been brazenly violated. It appears to us that the investigation opted for the easy course of implicating a poor servant of the house by demonizing him, without taking due care of probing more serious aspects of possible involvement of organized activity of organ trading.”

“Inferences of many kinds, including collusion etc., are probable on account of such serious lapses occasioned during investigation. However, we do not intend to express any definite opinion on these aspects and leave such issues to be examined at the appropriate level,” the court said in its order.

This case is related to the murder of a 20-year-old woman, who was reported missing in October 2006.

The killings had led to shock and outrage across the nation following the recovery of skeletons and belongings of missing girls from a drain outside businessman Pandher’s residence in Nithari village bordering Delhi in December 2006. Koli used to work as a domestic help and lived in Pandher’s D-5 residence.

“The stand of the prosecution regarding the crime in question kept changing from time to time. Initial prosecution case was against accused SK (Koli) and the owner of House No D-5 Moninder Singh Pandher and even recoveries made were attributed jointly to them,” the court said. “However, with passage of time, the guilt was fastened exclusively upon accused SK. Prosecution evidence has kept changing with the stage of investigation and ultimately all explanations are furnished in form of confession of accused SK, by throwing all possible safeguards to the winds.”

“The manner in which confession is recorded after 60 days of police remand without any medical examination of accused; providing of legal aid; overlooking specific allegation of torture in the confession itself; failure to comply with the requirement of Section 164 Cr.P.C. is shocking to say the least,” the court said.

Detailed orders for the rest of the cases were awaited at the time of going to press.

While Koli is lodged in Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad, Pandher is in Noida jail. Police had reached Pandher’s residence while investigating a case relating to a missing minor girl when they claimed to have found evidence. After arresting the two, the police claimed to have recovered more skeletons from the drain.

Koli was accused of killing several girls, chopping their bodies into pieces before throwing them in the backyard outside the house.

The CBI took over the investigation from UP Police in January 2007 and filed chargesheet in 16 cases against Koli and one case against Pandher. While Koli was booked on charges of murder, rape and destroying evidence, Pandher was booked in a case under the immoral trafficking Act.

Following applications moved by victims’ families, a lower court summoned Pandher in five more cases related to rape, murder, destruction of evidence among others, and charged were framed against him. The trial court had sentenced Pandher to death in three of these cases.