It was a decade-long wait but Nithari case victims have been finally served justice. Mercy petitions of six death row convicts, including necrophiliac Surender Koli, found guilty in the sensational Nithari serial rapes and killings, have been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. Besides Koli, mercy pleas of Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (Madhya Pradesh) and Holiram Bordoloi (Assam) have been rejected following recommendations of the Home Ministry, official sources said.
42-year-old Koli, who brutally killed and later axed children in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, was awarded death sentence by a lower court which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011.In a case that outraged the nation, Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Nithari. Remains of several missing children were found near the house. While 16 cases were filed against Koli, he has been awarded death sentence in four of them so far and others are still under trial.
Retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, KK Gautam, the IO in the case, said it was the most horrendous crime he had ever investigated in his 40 years of service. Expressing his happiness over the President’s decision to uphold the death sentence he said, “The convict (Koli) deserved death sentence. There can be no match to the brutality of Nithari killings,” Gautam told The Pioneer on rejection of the mercy plea.
Jhabhoo, a 45-year-old man whose seven-year-old daughter was killed by Koli, said that he is satisfied with the decision and he and his family have been praying for this day ever since their daughter was killed. “I am very happy with the announcement. Finally we got the justice we have been waiting for, since 2005. We just want him hanged at the earliest now,” Jhaboo said.
Another Nithari resident, Alok, whose daughter was killed and axed in pieces by Koli, said that his family feels ‘indebted’ to the President for rejecting the mercy plea. With moist eyes he narrated the ordeal his family went through. “When our daughter went missing, we looked for her for a few months but to our utter shock and grief, we got to know that Koli not only killed her but also ate her flesh. We had hoped for this punishment,” said Alok.
Shikha Singh — resident of D-5 Nithari village — where the children were murdered between 2005 and 2006 said the incident had terrorised the whole village, especially the children, who stopped venturing out alone.“A long time has passed now and things have returned back to normal. We were, however, relieved with the announcement of death sentence for Surender Koli and the rejection of his mercy plea by the President has come as a big relief,” she said.