Nithari killings: Allahabad High Court acquits death row convicts Surendra Koli in 12 cases, Moninder Pandher in 2

The Allahabad High Court on Monday acquitted accused Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in some of the cases concerning the Nithari killings of 2005-2006 in Noida, in which cases they had earlier been sentenced to death by a trial court. .Notably, the Court has acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in 2 cases, whereas they were earlier held guilty for murder and awarded the death penalty by the trial court in these cases..A High Court bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SAH Rizvi allowed appeals filed by the two convicts today after reserving the verdict in September. Advocate Manisha Bhandari appeared for Moninder Pander. Advocate Payoshi Roy appeared for Surendra Koli. A copy of the judgment is awaited. .The Nithari murders took place between 2005 and 2006. The case came to public attention in December 2006 when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida. Subsequently, it was revealed that Moninder Singh Pandher was the owner of the house, and Koli was his domestic help..The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took up the investigation in the matter and eventually filed multiple case information reports. Surendra Koli was made an accused in all of the cases on various charges including murder, abduction, rape, and the destruction of evidence, while Moninder Singh Pandher was charged in one case related to immoral trafficking..Koli was eventually convicted of committing multiple rapes and murders of various girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases.In July 2017, a special CBI court, presided over by judge Pawan Kumar Tiwari held Pandher and Koli guilty for killing of a 20-year-old woman, Pinki Sarkar, and sentenced them to death.Earlier, in 2009, the Allahabad High Court held Koli guilty but acquitted Pandher due to lack of evidence for the murder and rape of another victim, 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar. An appeal by Koli against this judgment was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2011. A review plea by Koli was also later dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014. However, the Allahabad High Court, on 28 January 2015 commuted the sentence to life imprisonment on account of an inordinate delay in deciding on Koli's mercy petition. This verdict was pronounced by a bench of then High Chief Justice (now Chief Justice of India) DY Chandrachud and Justice (since retired) PKS Baghel on a petition by the Peoples' Union for Democratic Rights.