Families complained, but their concerns were allegedly brushed aside by the police. They approached the police, but to no avail. It was 2006 when children, mostly from poor labourer families living in the lanes of Nithari – a village in Noida – began to go missing. The families of two missing girls, identified as Jyoti (10) and Rachna (8), suspected Surinder Koli – a domestic help working at the nearby home of businessman Moninder Singh Pandher – to be behind the disappearances.
When officers went inside the house, they stumbled upon evidence that would reveal what was initially believed to be a serial killing and cannibalism ring. Subsequently, Koli and Pandher were arrested. The investigation led the police to find 16 human skulls, bones, and clothing stuffed in plastic sacks behind a drain next to Pandher’s bungalow.
The police have informed his family in Almora and have initiated an investigation, officials said.
Four years later, in 2019, Koli was awarded another death penalty in his 10th conviction. Koli was convicted in 13 cases, according to the counsel of the victims’ family.
In 2015, however, the Allahabad High Court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment, citing the “inordinate” delay in deciding his mercy plea.
Koli confessed to kidnapping children, sexually assaulting them, and disposing of their bodies in the drain behind the bungalow. Rumours spread quickly that some body parts of children were eaten or sold, though no conclusive forensic evidence ever substantiated these allegations. The matter had also reached the then President Pranab Mukherjee – who had rejected Koli’s mercy petition. The order was passed on a review petition by Koli’s lawyer. The next month, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
Following this, Koli appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the death penalty in 2011. Koli was to be hanged on September 12, 2014, but the then Chief Justice HL Dattu passed an order at 1.30 am on September 8, putting up the execution by at least a week.
