New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) As the Supreme Court dismissed appeals by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Uttar Pradesh government, and families of victims against the acquittal of Moninder Singh Pandher and Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari serial killing case, a grieving father has said that he will not pursue any more legal petitions.
“If he was not guilty, then why was he kept in jail for so many years? The police officer who put him in jail should be sentenced to death, and the judge who gave that order should also face the death penalty. Acquit him if you want, but hand over the death penalty to the police and the judge,” said Jhabbulal, whose 10-year-old daughter Jyoti was one of the victims.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai upheld the 2023 Allahabad High Court judgment that reversed the death sentence awarded to Koli in 12 cases and to Pandher in two cases. The acquittals were granted, citing serious lapses in the investigation and prosecution. The High Court had raised questions over the role and performance of investigating agencies.
Despite the Supreme Court’s verdict in Koli’s favour, he will continue to remain in prison due to a life sentence in the 2005 murder case of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar, awarded by the High Court.
Jhabbulal, recalling the traumatic ordeal, told IANS, “For once, I might believe that Moninder Singh and Koli did not commit any crime. Then why were they put in jail and given a sentence? I believe the Supreme Court… it is the top court of the nation, so I trust that what they said was true; he might be innocent, but why was an innocent person put in jail then?”
“Only we know what truth is. No matter what the court or the lawyer says, we know who did the crime, and god will punish them. We will not file any more petitions,” he added.
Jhabbulal had searched for his daughter Jyoti for over a year and seven months, even scouring brothels in Mumbai and Delhi. His search ended when skeletal remains and belongings of his daughter were found in a drain behind bungalow number D5 in Noida’s Nithari village — just 30 feet from his house.
The house and its occupants, Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli, drew global media attention in December 2006 when human remains of at least 19 children and women were recovered from the premises.
Koli was sentenced to death by a sessions court in 2009 for the murder of Rimpa Haldar. The verdict was upheld by the High Court and later by the Supreme Court in 2011. His execution was stayed after a mercy petition, which was eventually rejected by the President in 2014. However, in January 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment due to a delay of over three years in deciding the mercy plea.
Pandher, who had initially been convicted in two cases and acquitted in four others, has now been completely acquitted in all six cases filed against him.
–IANS
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