Headlines
Allahabad HC commutes death term of Nithari killer
Lucknow, Jan 28
The Allahabad High Court Wednesday commuted the death sentence of Nithari killing convict Surinder Koli to life imprisonment.
A
bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.K.S. Baghel
passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Peoples Union for
Democratic Rights.
Uttar Pradesh Advocate General Vijay Bahadur
Singh and state counsel Akhilesh Singh opposed the petition to commute
Koli's death sentence.
Koli was convicted for the murder of Rimpa Haldar, who went missing in Noida in December 2006.
The
petitioner has alleged that there was considerable delay in disposing
of Koli's mercy petition by the president of India and hence the capital
punishment be commuted to life term.
Many children went missing
from Noida's Nithari village in 2005. In December that year, police
raided the bungalow of Moninder Singh Pandher and arrested him and his
domestic help Koli after some skeletons were recovered from the backyard
of the bungalow and in a nearby drain.
The state government has recommended a CBI probe into the case.
In July 2014, Pranab Mukherjee refused to entertain his mercy petition after which judicial process for his execution started.
The
high court, however, put on hold Koli's hanging after human rights
activists filed a petition before it to commute his death sentence.