My son is innocent: Nithari killer Koli's mother

, Sep 11: The mother of

murders convict Surendra Koli Thursday maintained that her son was innocent and said Koli's employer Moninder Singh Pandher was responsible for the killings.

Kunti Devi met Koli at Meerut jail and said afterwards: "My son is innocent." Speaking to journalists outside the jail, she said Pandher was responsible for the killings and that he should be hanged before her son.

Koli was convicted for the murder of a girl, Rimpa Halder, who went missing in Noida in December 2006. After a police investigation, she was found to have been murdered by Koli.

During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house in Nithari, an area in Noida, where Koli worked as domestic help.

Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death, but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld Koli's death sentence.

The Supreme Court also upheld the lower court's judgment. On Thursday, Kunti Devi said the influential Pandher was spared and a poor innocent was made scapegoat. Koli was transferred from the Dasna jail here to Meerut Sep 4.

He was to be executed Sep 12 but the hanging was stayed till next Monday following a Supreme Court order.

Meerut jail Superintendent S.M. Rizvi said the hook and the loop to hang Koli had reached the prison and all arrangements to carry out the execution were in readiness.

Although Koli had not asked to meet his family members, his mother arrived to see him. Koli had also filed a mercy petition before the president, but his plea was rejected.

IANS