Nithari killings: A flashback

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of Nithari serial killings convict Surinder Koli, for a week until a fresh review petition challenging his death penalty is heard in an open courtroom by a Bench of three judges of the apex court. Kohli was to be hanged in a Meerut jail on September 12.

Who is Surinder Koli?

• Koli is a class VI dropout and used to work as a domestic help in businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house in sector-31 of Noida (near Nithari village).
• He is alleged to have sexually assaulted and killed as many as 15 children and three women within a span of one-and-a half years.
• Koli allegedly lured children to the house of his employer. The children were first sexually abused by Pandher, his employer, and then by Koli before being murdered.
• Koli disposed the bodies in nearby drains after putting the chopped parts in different bags.
• He was detained on December 29, 2006, after complaints by Nithari villagers whose children had disappeared.
• Before landing in Noida, Koli skinned animals for a living and sometimes ate raw flesh.
• Koli was convicted of raping and murdering 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in December 2006.
• Koli was awarded death sentence by a lower court, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court on 15 February, 2011 for the murder of Rimpa.
• A total of 16 cases are registered against Koli in connection with Nithari killings. Out of them, he has been awarded death sentence in five of them.

Nithari killings: A timeline

• The case came to light in December, 2006, with the discovery of eight skeletal remains of children from the drain of a house in Nithari.
• The police then arrested the owner of the house Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli on suspicion.
• Seeing the gravity of the case, the case was handed over to CBI on January,10.
• The accused taken to Gandhinagar for extensive narco-analysis test by UP police.
• On March, 22 CBI files first chargesheet in the case. The agency charged Koli of committing all the murders besides rape and kidnap. Pandher was charged with lesser charges.
• On 12 February 2009, Pandher and Koli were found guilty of murder of Rimpa Haldar, by a special sessions court in Ghaziabad.
• This verdict left the CBI red-faced, as it had earlier given a clean chit to Pandher in all its chargesheets.
• Both the accused were given the death sentence on 13 February 2009, as the case was classified as "rarest of rare".
• On 10 September 2009, the Allahabad high court acquitted Pandher and overturned his death sentence, but upheld death sentence of Koli.
• On 3 September 2014, Court issued death warrant against Koli in Nithari case.