Top court orders his immediate release
TNR News Network
DHARAMSHALA:
Nearly two decades after the gruesome Nithari killings where children were abducted, m*urdered and their remains dumped into a drain behind a house in Noida, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 11, 2025) acquitted Surendra Koli, one of the key accused, in one of the m*urder cases. The top court allowed his curative petition, setting aside his conviction and paving the way for his immediate release.
A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath delivered the verdict in the open court, stating, “For the reasons recorded above, the curative petition is allowed.”
The order also directed that Koli be released “forthwith, if not required in any other case or proceeding”.
Court finds conviction based on weak evidence
The bench observed that the conviction rested largely on Koli’s statement and the recovery of a kitchen knife, noting that such evidence was insufficient to sustain a death sentence. The judges pointed out that since Koli had already been acquitted in all other related cases, it would be inconsistent to uphold the conviction in a single one.
Koli, who worked as a domestic help at the home of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher in Noida’s Nithari village, was accused of kidnapping, raping and killing several children between 2005 and 2006. The horror came to light on December 29, 2006, when skeletal remains of eight children were found in a drain behind Pandher’s residence.
The incident shocked the nation, exposing one of India’s most chilling serial murder cases. Koli was arrested soon after, and in 2011, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. His review plea was rejected in 2014, but the Allahabad High Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment the following year due to delays in deciding his mercy petition.
All other Nithari cases now closed
In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted both Koli and Pandher in multiple Nithari cases, overturning the trial court’s 2017 death verdicts. The High Court cleared Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two, citing lack of evidence and procedural lapses.
The CBI and families of the victims had challenged these acquittals, but the Supreme Court dismissed all 14 appeals on July 30 this year.
On October 7, the apex court had reserved its verdict on Koli’s curative plea, observing that it “deserved to be allowed” as retaining a lone conviction despite multiple acquittals had created an “anomalous situation.”
With Tuesday’s order, all pending cases against Surendra Koli stand closed, bringing a legal end to one of India’s darkest crime chapters that began with the discovery of children’s bones in a Noida drain in 2006.
