Saturday, March 29, 2025
In a major setback for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and families of the victims, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed 14 petitions challenging the acquittal of Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli in the infamous Nithari serial killings case. The top court upheld the 2023 verdict of the Allahabad High Court, which had exonerated the two accused in the gruesome crimes that shocked the nation in 2006.
The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, and Justice K. Vinod Chandran, ruled that the High Court’s judgment was sound and devoid of any legal infirmity. The court observed that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt and described the investigation as flawed and unreliable.
The Supreme Court dismissed 14 pleas: 12 filed by the CBI and two by victims’ families, including Pappu Lal and Anil Haldar.
The bench stated: “There is no flaw in the Allahabad High Court’s verdict. The petitions stand dismissed.”
Chief Justice asked the CBI and victims’ counsel to demonstrate the specific legal errors in the High Court’s decision. When they cited recovered remains from a drain behind Pandher’s house, the bench questioned the legality of such recoveries without proper recorded confessions.
Referring to Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, the bench clarified that only those recoveries made from locations exclusively accessible to the accused, and tied directly to the crime based on facts disclosed in custody, can be admissible in court.
The Nithari case came to light on December 29, 2006, when skeletal remains of eight children were discovered in a drain behind Pandher’s house in Noida, near Delhi. Subsequent excavations led to more human remains, most belonging to poor children who had gone missing from the area.
Pandher, a businessman, and his domestic help Koli were arrested. The CBI took over the probe within 10 days, uncovering 19 separate cases involving murder, abduction, and sexual assault. However, inconsistencies and procedural lapses plagued the investigation.
The Allahabad High Court, on October 16, 2023, overturned the trial court’s conviction, noting the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It also criticized the CBI’s probe as “shoddy” and “betrayal of public trust.”
Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing the victims’ families, had argued that remains of 16 children were found and that both accused should be held accountable. However, the Supreme Court maintained that the evidence presented did not meet the threshold required to reverse the acquittals.
One of the dismissed petitions was filed by Pappu Lal, whose child was among the victims. He contested the High Court’s decision, which had held only Koli guilty while acquitting Pandher in his child’s case.
Initially, Pandher had been acquitted by the sessions court while Koli was sentenced to death on September 28, 2010. But following multiple appeals, the High Court quashed their convictions in 2023 due to insufficient and questionable evidence.
To date, 19 cases were filed against the duo. The CBI closed three for lack of evidence, and in the remaining 16, Koli had already been acquitted in three and had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment in another.
The Supreme Court’s ruling reaffirms the legal principle that convictions must be based on concrete, admissible evidence — not merely circumstantial or custodial statements made without procedural safeguards.
