SC rejects review plea of Nithari killer Koli
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the review plea of death row convict Surinder Koli in one of the Nithari murder cases.
The apex court bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu, Justice Anil R Dave and Justice SA Bobde, rejected the plea by Nithari killer Surinder Koli seeking recall of the judgment upholding his death sentence in Rimpa Haldar murder case.
In the first open court hearing of the review petition of death sentence cases, the apex court said that "we are fully satisfied that this court has not committed any error that may persuade us to review the order" upholding his death sentence.
Referring to the argument by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani that Surinder Koli was not given a proper legal assistance to defend his case, the court directed that in future the trial court will ensure that the accused in other cases be given proper legal assistance by a lawyer of expertise and who can devote time.
Jethmalani said the entire evidence relied upon by the trial court in convicting and sentencing Koli to death clearly shows that he was tormented by the police to give evidence against himself and autopsy report shows that the murder of 14 children was done by medical expert precision with the objective of trading in organs.
Koli was sentenced to death following the grisly killing of about 14 children whose remains were found in a drain outside his employer Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Nithari in 2006.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accused Koli and Pandher of raping and murdering the children in a case that shocked the entire nation.
On September 12, the Supreme Court had extended till October 29 the stay on the execution of death sentence of Nithari rapist-cum-serial killer Surinder Koli.
A bench headed by Justice HL Dattu posted the case for hearing on October 28, on Koli's plea seeking review of apex court's verdict upholding his conviction and death sentence in one of the murder cases.
The plea on behalf of 42-year-old Koli was moved by a team of lawyers led by senior advocate Indira Jaising and was mentioned before the bench after midnight and the order was passed at 1.40am, hours before his execution. Koli was to be hanged on the early morning of September 8, in Meerut jail, where he had been kept in a high-security barrack.
