Surinder Koli held guilty of rape, murder in fourth Nithari case

Surinder Koli, prime accused in the 2006 Nithari serial killings, was awarded death sentence for the fourth time on Wednesday.

A special CBI court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad awarded death to 38-year-old Koli for murdering 12-year-old Deepali.

He was the only accused in this case. The CBI court had already held Koli guilty of murdering 8-year-old Rachna, 7-year-old Aarti and 14-year-old Rampa Haldar for which he has been awarded capital punishment.

Special CBI judge AK Singh, declared him guilty for kidnapping, rape and murder of Deepali. The court said Koli was a “disgrace to the society and deserves no sympathy”. It also said Koli’s crime was “heinous” and a “stigma and threat to humanity”.

People across the country were horrified when Noida Police unearthed on December 29, 2006, skeletons of children and young women from a drain next to Maninder Singh Pandher’s bungalow in Noida.

Pandher and his domestic help Koli were arrested in 19 cases wherein young women and children were killed and their body parts were dumped in the drain.

CBI has filed chargesheets in 16 of the 19 cases of abduction, rape and murder of 15 children (mostly girls) and four young women against Koli and Pandher. Pandher is a co-accused in five cases.