SC to hear CBI plea against acquittal of Nithari convict

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday entertained appeals by CBI challenging Allahabad High Court judgments acquitting Surinder Koli, who was awarded death sentences in 12 cases of sexual assault and murder of minor girls and women in what became infamous as the Nithari killings, but the man will not come out of jail as he is serving life term in another case.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan that these cases depicted brutal acts of a depraved mind which led to sexual assault of minor girls and women followed by their murders, and in some cases indulgence in cannibalism. The bench needed no more persuasion to issue notice to Koli.
However, the 12 judgments being orders of acquittal as against death penalty imposed by the trial court, the Supreme Court did not stay the HC order as that would mean activating trial court judgments imposing capital punishment.
However, the acquittals in 12 cases by the HC will not result in Koli coming out of prison as he is serving life sentence in another case of the Nithari killings, which took place in 2005-2006. In that case, the death penalty imposed by the trial court in 2007 was upheld by Allahabad HC in 2009 and then by the SC in 2011.
Awaiting the gallows, Koli had filed a mercy petition before the President, which was rejected after a long delay. When Koli challenged the rejection of mercy petition and sought commutation of death penalty on the ground of delay in deciding the mercy plea, the HC in Jan 2015 commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.