Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Monday acquitted domestic help Surendra Koli and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher in the sensational 2006 Nithari serial killings in which they were facing death sentence, holding that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” and that the investigation was “botched up”.
However, the judgement in the case bringing back memories of the chilling crime targeting young girls that came to light with skeletal remains being found behind a Noida bungalow in NCR may only see Pandher walking out of the jail. Koli, the key accused, will continue to serve the life imprisonment awarded to him in the killing of a 14-year-old girl.
Reversing the death sentence given to Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, the high court noted that the prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of both the accused “beyond reasonable doubt, on the settled parameters of a case based on circumstantial evidence” and the probe was “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
The two were charged with rape and murder and sentenced to death in the killings that horrified the nation with the details on sexual assault, brutal murder and hints of possible cannibalism. While Koli is in a Ghaziabad prison, Pandher is lodged in a Noida jail.
In Noida, family members of the victims expressed disappointment over the verdict and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to hang the killers.
“We are not satisfied with the judgment. This is not right. When someone killing several children gets acquitted, imagine what punishment will those get who kill just one or two people,” said Jhabbu Lal (63) and Sunita Devi (60), who lost their daughter.
Devi, busy ironing clothes but intermittently speaking to reporters, said, “We appeal to PM (Narendra) Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath that those who killed our children should be hanged.”
The high court observed that prosecution was based on the confessional statement given by Koli to the UP Police on December 29, 2006 but the procedure required to be followed for recording his disclosure leading to recovery of biological remains i.e. skulls, bones and skeleton etc. has been given a “complete go by”.
“The casual and perfunctory manner in which important aspects of arrest, recovery and confession have been dealt with are most disheartening, to say the least.”
A two-judge bench of Justices Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi and Ashwani Kumar Mishra allowed the appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who had challenged the death sentence given by a CBI court in Ghaziabad.
“The Allahabad High Court order may pave the way for Pandher to walk out of jail,” the businessman’s lawyer Manisha Bhandari told PTI over phone.
A CBI official in New Delhi said the agency’s team was waiting for the judgment copy and would take a call on next steps after studying it.
The high court noted that the prosecution stand kept changing from time to time as it initially attributed recoveries jointly on Pandher and Koli but with passage of time the “guilt was fastened exclusively” upon Koli.
“Prosecution evidence has kept changing with the stage of investigation and ultimately all explanations are furnished in form of confession of accused SK (Surendra Koli), by throwing all possible safeguards to the winds.”
The bench said the manner in which the 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 high court also noted that the agencies did not look into possibility of the involvement of an organ trade ring as all the recoveries of human remains were made from a drain between D-5 (Pandher’s house) and D-6 (belonging to a doctor facing investigation in organ trade) and not from Pandher’s house.
It said that “failure” of investigation agencies to probe the angle of organ trade even after recommendations from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development was “nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies.”
“Loss of life of young children and ladies is a matter of serious concern particularly when their lives were brought to an end in a most inhuman manner but that, in itself, would not justify denial of fair trial to the accused nor would it justify their punishment even in the absence of evidence to implicate them.”
The high court termed the investigation “botched up” with “brazen violation” of “basic norms of collecting evidence”.
“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.”
In all, 19 cases had been lodged against Pandher and Koli in 2007. The CBI had filed closure reports in three due to lack of evidence. In the remaining 16 cases, Koli was earlier acquitted in three cases and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life.
The UP government’s plea challenging the high court earlier commuting Koli’s death sentence to life imprisonment before the Supreme Court is still pending. With today’s order, Koli stands acquitted in the remaining 12 cases today.
Pandher, his lawyer said, was initially charged in six cases — one by the CBI and was summoned by families of the victims in five cases.
He was acquitted in three cases by the sessions court earlier. He has been acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in the remaining three — one in 2009 and in two on Monday, his lawyer Bhandari said.
The sensational killings came to light with the discovery of the skeletal remains of eight children from the drain behind Pandher’s house in Nithari in Noida bordering the national capital on December 29, 2006.
Further digging and searches of drains in the area around Pandher’s house led to more skeletal remains being found. Most of these remains were that of poor children and young women who had gone missing from the area.
Within 10 days, the CBI took over the case and its search resulted in the recovery of more bones.
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