Supreme Court upholds acquittal of Surendra Koli, Moninder Pandher in Nithari killings

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Allahabad High Court’s October 2023 judgment acquitting Surendra Koli in 12 cases related to the Nithari killings in Noida, where he was accused of sexually assaulting and murdering several girls and women. The acquittal was based on police lapses that rendered crucial evidence inadmissible.

A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and K Vinod Chandran, while hearing appeals filed by the parents of a victim, the Uttar Pradesh government and the CBI, posed a single question to additional solicitor general Rajkumar B Thakare for the prosecution and senior advocate Geeta Luthra for the parents: “Show us a single perversity in the appreciation of evidence by the HC.”

The Supreme Court also dismissed appeals against the acquittal of Koli’s employer, Moninder Singh Pandher, in two related cases. These 12 cases against Koli and two against Pandher were based on circumstantial evidence and Koli’s alleged confessional statements. While Koli was earlier convicted by the trial court and awarded the death penalty, he will remain in jail as he is serving a life term in another murder case where his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court.


Koli and Pandher gained nationwide notoriety in 2006 when police linked them to the Nithari gangrape and murder case, which involved allegations of sexual assault, murder and even cannibalism. Koli was accused of luring poor minor children for Pandher and allegedly consuming their flesh after killing them.

CJI Gavai noted that the trial court appeared to have convicted the accused due to the gravity of the case and media pressure. “We must compliment the HC judges for writing such a correct verdict despite media pressure. You (the prosecution) are not able to point out a single perversity in the HC order acquitting the accused,” the bench said.

The HC bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Syed Aftab Husain Rizvi had, on October 16, 2023, expressed “disappointment” with the investigation, calling it “botched up” and stating that “basic norms of collecting evidence were brazenly violated.” The court said investigators had chosen the easy route of implicating a poor domestic help by demonising him, and that a fair trial had been denied to the accused.

Agreeing with the HC’s findings, the Supreme Court stressed that the police had failed to follow basic evidence collection procedures. “If the recoveries of incriminating articles were not as per Section 27 of the Evidence Act, the evidence is inadmissible in law,” the bench said, dismissing the appeals.

The Nithari killings came to light in December 2006, when skeletal remains of eight children were discovered in a drain behind Pandher’s house in Sector 31, Noida. The case was handed over to the CBI in January 2007, which alleged that Koli had killed several girls, dismembered their bodies and dumped them in the backyard.

With inputs from ToI