Supreme Court stays Koli’s death sentence in Nithari killing

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday stayed the death sentence of Surinder Koli, convicted in February last year of raping and killing 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar in Nithari village in Noida near the national capital.

Haldar was one of the 19 young women and children from Nithari whose body parts were found in a drain behind the bungalow of Koli’s employer Moninder Singh Pandher in December 2006.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.S Chauhan also issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Uttar Pradesh government seeking their stand on the lawsuit challenging Kohli’s conviction.

Millions across the country and abroad were horrified when Noida police on Dec 29, 2006, began uncovering the remains of children and young women from a drain next to Pandher’s (D-5) bungalow in Noida’s Sector 31. Koli and Pandher were arrested thereafter.

In February 2009, a special CBI court sentenced Pandher and Koli to death for raping and killing Rimpa Haldar.

But, much to the shock of the victims’ families, Pandher was acquitted by the Allahabad High court in September 2009.

Of the 19 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 co-accused in only six cases.