The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed 14 appeals challenging the Allahabad High Court’s October 16, 2023, acquittal of Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari serial killings case, finding “no perversity” in the high court’s ruling. The bench, led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, alongside Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and K. Vinod Chandran, ruled that the recovery of victims’ skulls and belongings from an open drain in Noida’s Sector 31 did not meet the admissibility criteria under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, as it was not based on Koli’s statement to police. The court emphasized that only recoveries from locations exclusively accessible to the accused are admissible in circumstantial evidence cases.

Koli, the domestic help of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was accused of raping and murdering multiple individuals, mostly children, in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh. The trial court sentenced Koli to death in 12 cases and Pandher in two on September 28, 2010, based on 19 registered cases involving murder, rape, and kidnapping. The Allahabad High Court, however, acquitted both, citing a “botched up” CBI investigation that failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, reversing Koli’s death sentences and describing the probe as a “betrayal of public trust.”

The Supreme Court heard pleas from the CBI, Uttar Pradesh government, and a victim’s father, who challenged the acquittal. The bench questioned the CBI’s evidence, noting that the drain, accessible to the public, undermined the prosecution’s case. While public outrage over justice denied for the 19 victims, mostly girls aged 8–15. The Nithari case, involving 38 skeletal remains found in 2006–2007, remains a grim chapter in India’s criminal history, with no convictions upheld.

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