New Delhi: Families of the Nithari serial killing victims have reacted with disbelief and anger after the Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Surendra Koli, the domestic help accused in the 2006 Noida serial murders, in the last pending case against him.
“Was there a ghost who killed our kids? If Koli and Pandher are innocent, who killed them?” asked the father of one victim, struggling to understand the verdict that, he said, had reopened old wounds and left them without answers even after nearly two decades.
Another bereaved mother said she could not accept that both the accused were being declared innocent. She recalled how the men were accused of killing and mutilating children, adding that “law may have freed them, but God won’t.”
The Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice BR Gavai, acquitted Koli, ruling that his conviction in the lone pending case could not stand when he had already been cleared in 12 others based on the same evidence. The bench observed that “suspicion, however grave, cannot replace proof beyond reasonable doubt,” while ordering Koli’s release if he is not required in any other case.
The court also highlighted serious lapses in the investigation — from delayed medical reports to improper evidence handling and inconsistencies in the case documents — that weakened the prosecution’s case.
In Nithari, the verdict has rekindled anger and confusion among victims’ families, who say justice remains elusive. Another parent questioned how both accused could be acquitted after years of court battles, asking bitterly who would now be held accountable for their children’s deaths.
Between 2005 and 2006, skeletal remains of several children and women were recovered from drains behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s residence in Nithari village, Noida. Koli, who worked as Pandher’s domestic help, was accused of abducting, killing and dismembering the victims before disposing of their bodies. Both men were sentenced to death in multiple cases, but all convictions were overturned over the years for lack of conclusive evidence.
With Tuesday’s judgment, all criminal cases against Koli in connection with the Nithari killings stand closed. But for the grieving families, the verdict has offered no closure. They say the question that haunted them in 2006 still remains unanswered — if not Koli, then who killed their children?