Koli’s death sentence suspended, focus on Pandher (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday suspended the death sentence of Surinder Koli, convicted in February last year of raping and killing 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar in Nithari village near the capital in a case that shocked the nation for its depravity.

The decision will help shift the focus on Koli’s employer Moninder Singh Pandher, a co-accused in the horrific crimes against at least 19 children and women from the village in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, say the parents of victims.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.S. Chauhan suspended Koli’s death sentence following a lawsuit filed by him, challenging his conviction and death penalty by a Ghaziabad sessions court that was endorsed by the Allahabad High Court.

The apex court bench also issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Koli’s appeal.

Besides the Rimpa Haldar case, Koli is facing trial for his alleged role in raping, sodomising and killing around 18 other young women and children.

In February 2009, a special CBI court sentenced Pandher and Koli to death for raping and killing Haldar. But much to the shock of the victims’ families, Pandher was acquitted by the high court in September 2009.

Koli challenged the endorsement of his death sentence by the high court, contending that both he and Pandher were awarded the death sentence on the basis of the same evidence. Yet the high court had allowed Pandher’s appeal against his conviction.

Khalid Khan, a lawyer representing the Nithari victims, said the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend his death sentence indicated that evidence in the case may be re-evaluated.

“This is a very good decision…This is actually an advantage for us because the court will re-evaluate the evidence submitted before the high court and lower courts,” Khalid Khan, a lawyer representing the Nithari victims, told IANS.

Koli has said he too deserves the benefit of doubt in the case as there was only circumstantial evidence, with questionable credence, available against him.

Koli’s counsel Sushil Balwada contended in his lawsuit that Koli’s crime cannot be termed as the “rarest of the rare” - a prerequisite for awarding him the death sentence.

Millions across the country and abroad were horrified when police in neighbouring Noida on Dec 29, 2006 stumbled upon the remains of children and young women from a drain next to Pandher’s (D-5) bungalow in Noida’s Sector 31. Rimpa’s body parts were among these.

A sensational case of sexual abuse and murder of young women and children emerged and both Koli and Pandher were arrested. Koli later confessed to a Delhi court that he used to eat the flesh of dead children.

Of the cases of abduction, rape and murder of four women and 15 children, mostly girls, the CBI has filed chargesheets in 16 cases. All the cases are being heard separately. While Koli has been charged with rape, abduction and murder in all the cases, Pandher is a co-accused in only six cases.

The parents of victims hope the Supreme Court’s decision will finally put the focus on Pandher.

“This time I hope Pandher too will be given the same sentence,” Rimpa’s father Anil Haldar told IANS.

“I will be happy only when the two responsible (for the crime) are hanged. I have full faith in the Supreme Court, even though Pandher was acquitted by the Allahabad (high) court (in one case).”