- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Surinder Koli and his businessman employer Moninder Singh Pandher were convicted 14 years ago in the horrific case that rocked the nation.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S gruesome “Nithari killings” case was back into the headlines on Monday (16) when a court in the country acquitted two men who were on death row for the rape and murder of nearly 20 women and children in 2005.
Surinder Koli and his businessman employer Moninder Singh Pandher were convicted 14 years ago in the horrific case that rocked the nation.
The duo were held in 2006 after human body parts were found near their residence in Delhi.
On Monday, the Allahabad High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh found Koli innocent in 12 cases in which he was given the death sentence.
It also found Pandher not guilty in the two cases against him.
Speaking to the media, their lawyer said that Koli and Pandher were acquitted due to “lack of evidence”.
At least 19 women and children were raped, murdered and dismembered at Pandher’s house where Koli worked as a house aid in a wealthy suburb near the Indian capital.
The murders came to light in 2006 after body parts and children’s clothing were found inside a sewer in front of their residence.
A top investigation agency had registered 19 cases against Koli and Pandher. While the former was charged for murder, abduction, rape and destruction of evidence, the latter for immoral trafficking.
In January 2015, the Allahabad High Court had commuted the death sentence of Koli to life imprisonment in the case.
The children, whose remains were found inside the bags, were allegedly lured by Koli, who gave them sweets and chocolate, before they met gruesome deaths. He confessed in court of heinous acts of cannibalism and necrophilia.
The murders caused a nation-wide outrage with many accusing the police of negligence. Local residents alleged that the police failed to act because many of the victims reported missing came from poor families. They lived in a nearby slum called Nithari from which the case got its name.
