Nearly twenty years after the Nithari murders horrified the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ended the final chapter of the case by overturning Surendra Koli’s last remaining conviction.

The ruling, delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai with Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, directed that Koli be released immediately.

“The petitioner is acquitted of the charges. The petitioner shall be released forthwith,” the bench ordered.

Final Relief After Years of Litigation

This verdict came on a curative petition, Koli’s final legal remedy, challenging the Supreme Court’s own 2011 decision that had upheld his conviction for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. The court observed that the earlier judgment rested only on his statement and the recovery of a kitchen knife evidence it found unreliable when viewed against his acquittal in twelve other identical cases.

The bench noted that allowing the conviction to stand would be inconsistent with the findings in the rest of the Nithari trials, where similar evidence had been dismissed.

The Horror That Shook Noida

The Nithari crimes came to light in December 2006, when police in Noida discovered skeletal remains of several missing children behind the house of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher. Koli, who worked as Pandher’s domestic help, was taken into custody soon after.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later charged the two men with a series of murders, abductions, and sexual assaults. Investigators alleged that Koli lured victims to the house, killed them, and dumped the remains in a backyard drain.

The gruesome discoveries led to nationwide outrage and intense media scrutiny, making the case one of India’s most disturbing criminal episodes.

Convictions, Commutations, and Acquittals

Between 2009 and 2017, a CBI court in Ghaziabad sentenced Koli to death in twelve cases. Pandher was also convicted in two. Both men challenged these decisions in the Allahabad High Court, which in 2015 commuted Koli’s death penalty to life imprisonment, citing delays in processing his mercy plea.

Later, in October 2023, the High Court acquitted Koli in twelve cases and Pandher in two, calling the investigation inconsistent and the evidence insufficient. Those acquittals were appealed by the CBI and the victims’ families, but the Supreme Court dismissed all 14 appeals on July 31, 2025.

Despite those decisions, Koli remained imprisoned because his conviction in the case involving the 15-year-old girl had not yet been overturned—until now.

Closure for a Long-Drawn Case

By setting aside that final conviction, the Supreme Court has brought Koli’s nearly two-decade incarceration to an end.

“The petitioner shall be released forthwith, if not wanted in any other case,” Justice Nath said while pronouncing the order.

The judgment closes one of India’s most infamous criminal proceedings, which exposed the vulnerabilities of poor children in urban slums and raised difficult questions about investigative practices.

The case continues to live in public memory through books, documentaries, and the 2024 Hindi film Sector 36, which revisited the events that once stunned the nation.