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Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the Allahabad High Court's acquittal of Surendra Koli, accused in the 2005-06 Noida Nithari killings.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan issued notice to convict and others and tagged the matter along with the other pending case. During the brief hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, argued that Koli was a serial killer who used to lure young girls and kill them. He said the killings were "gruesome" and told the bench that there were accusations of cannibalism and the trial court had awarded the death penalty to Koli, but the same had been reversed by the Allahabad High Court. Earlier, the apex court had sought response from Uttar Pradesh government and others on an appeal filed by Pappu Lal, the father of one of the victim girls, challenging the High Court acquittal order of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Koli. In October last year, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in some of the cases concerning the Nithari killings and overturned the death penalty imposed on them by the trial court. It had acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two cases, where they were earlier held guilty for murder and awarded the death penalty by the trial court in these cases. The CBI had registered 16 cases against Koli and Pandher over rape and killing of girls that had shocked the nation. The case came to public attention in December 2006 when skeletons were discovered in a drain near a house in Nithari village, Noida. Pandher was the owner of the house and Koli was his domestic help. Koli was made accused in all of the cases on various charges including murder, abduction, rape, and the destruction of evidence. However, Pandher was named in six of them. Koli was convicted of committing multiple rapes and murders of various girls and was sentenced to death in more than 10 cases. (ANI)
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