NITHARI KILLINGS: THE FINAL CHAPTER OF A 19-YEAR HORROR

Surinder Koli, the last accused in the grisly Nithari murders, walked out of a Noida prison late Wednesday after the Supreme Court quashed the final case against him.

- TDG NETWORK

Moninder Singh Pandher (left) and Surinder Koli (right), central figures in the Nithari killings case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai ruled that the prosecution had “failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” noting that “suspicion, however grave, cannot replace proof”. Clad in a blue shirt and black jacket, Koli slipped quietly through the jail gates at 7:20 pm; his family was nowhere to be seen. There were no cheers - only stunned silence in Nithari village, where residents have lived with fear and grief for nearly two decades.

“So many years have passed, and now we feel defeated,” whispered Lakshmi, whose eight-year-old daughter went missing in 2006.

This week’s acquittal brings a painful close to the courtroom saga - but leaves the deep wounds of Nithari wide open. Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, who intervened in 2014 to save Koli from hanging, warned that the case exposes systemic failures. “Death penalty is irreversible,” she said; “no one should be executed until all legal remedies are exhausted”.

Pointing to Koli’s release, she added bluntly, “The process of investigation is flawed as a whole in the country... The question remains, who killed the children?”.