Nearly two decades after the Nithari killings shocked the nation, the Supreme Court has delivered a verdict that raises more questions than answers.

The court, calling it a ‘manifest miscarriage of justice’ said that convictions, particularly in cases involving capital punishment, cannot rest on mere “conjecture” and that due process must prevail even in the most horrific crimes.

In November 2025, Surendra Koli walked free, because the courts could not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But how did Koli and Moninder Singh Pander, go from being branded 'monsters' and being awarded death sentences, be acquitted?

To find the answers to this, we must revisit the case.

On December 29, 2006, skeletal human remains were discovered in an open drain and an open strip of land behind Noida Sector 31’s D-5, a house owned by Moninder Singh Pandher, where Surendra Koli worked as a domestic help. Stories of gore and possible cannibalism followed suit.

This came off the back of several women and children who were reported missing in Noida’s sector 31, where D-5 was located.

Koli and Pandher were arrested.

January 10, 2007 - The case gets handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. More bones are recovered from the drain. The CBI files a chargesheet in 16 cases for rape, murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and trafficking.

March 1, 2007 - Koli admits to murdering one woman and six children and even confesses cannibalism, in a recorded statement.

February 13, 2009 - The Ghaziabad court finds Koli and Pandher guilty of murdering a 14-year-old and gives them a death sentence.

The Allahabad High Court upheld Koli’s death sentence, but acquitted Pandher in at least one prominent case citing a lack of evidence against him.

Meanwhile, over the next few years,Koli is convicted and sentenced to death in 12 other cases - all based on the same evidence.

Koli’s appeal is dismissed by the Apex court, and his mercy petitions are rejected by the UP Governor in 2013 and the then President Pranab Mukherjee in 2014.

Over time, Koli’s legal team mounted a fierce appeal.

October 2023 - The Allahabad high court acquitted Koli in 12 of the death-sentence cases and Pandher in two, overturning the trial court’s verdicts.

How did the same court, examining the same set of evidence over a 10-year gap, come to two distinctly different conclusions?

A major point highlighted by the High Court was the failure of the investigators to probe a possible organ trade case to a conclusion. It must be noted here that one of Pandher’s neighbours was a doctor, who was a suspect in an earlier separate case involving allegations of organ trade.

July 2025 - The Supreme Court dismisses the state’s appeal against these acquittals.

Crucial scientific opportunities were lost when post-mortem material and other forensic outputs were not promptly and properly brought on record... The investigation did not adequately examine obvious witnesses from the household and neighbourhood and did not pursue material leads, including the organ-trade angle flagged by a governmental committee. Each lapse weakened the provenance and reliability of the evidence and narrowed the path to the truth.

Supreme Court

This saga, in a case that shocked the nation, casts a harsh light on India’s criminal justice system.

This case also raises questions about lapses in investigations, especially in high profile cases.

When investigations are timely, professional and constitutionally compliant, even the most difficult mysteries can be solved, and many crimes can be prevented through early intervention. It is, therefore, deeply unfortunate that in the present case, negligence and delay corroded the fact-finding process and foreclosed avenues that might have led to the true offender.

Supreme Court

Besides the Nithari killings, the nature of the investigation was also questioned in other high profile cases.

For example, in the Aarushi Talwar murder case of 2008, where a 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar was found in her house, with her throat slit in Noida on May 16, 2008.

Hemraj the househelp was an initial suspect, but was found dead on the terrace of the same house.

The case grabbed headlines once more when in September 2009, it emerged that Aarushi’s forensic evidence had been allegedly tampered with while the pathology report went missing.

The police suspected an ‘insider job’ as the murders were done with ‘surgical precision’, and even branded this an ‘honour killing’.

After many twists and turns, the CBI filed a closure report in 2010 pointing fingers at the parents. Special CBI judge Preeti Singh rejected the closure report and summoned both parents as accused for murder and destruction of evidence. The court treated the closure report as a chargesheet under the CrPC.

In 2012, the agency charged the parents with murder, conspiracy and destruction of evidence after conducting narco and lie-detector tests on the couple.

The couple was convicted by a CBI court in 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment but in 2017 the Allahabad High Court acquitted both parents after the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Talwars had killed their daughter.

Reports quoted the judges as saying that the evidence against the couple was circumstantial and the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which investigated the murders.

In the Sheena Bora case of 2012, where Bora, 25, went missing on 24 April, 2012. A month later, Maharashtra police found a decomposed body in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

Bora was the daughter of Media Baron Indrani Mukherjee from an earlier relationship.

Maharashtra police said in 2024 that the charred human remains believed to be of Sheena’s were lost but weeks later said that they were found lying in the CBI office in Delhi.

August 21, 2015- Shyamvar Rai, Indrani Mukerjea’s former driver, arrested by police for possession of illegal weapons. He tells the police about Sheena’s killing three years earlier and Indrani’s alleged involvement in the crime.

Mukherjee, her husband Peter Mukherjee, her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna were arrested.

Indrani, Peter, Sanjeev and Shaymvar were granted bail by the Bombay High Court.

Both the Aaurishi Talwar and Sheena Bora cases remain unsolved. (BIG BOLD SLUGS)

The common denominator in all these cases – besides that they shocked the country – is the investigation’s case falling flat in a higher court.

Beyond all the legalese and fine print, one big question remains: Who killed the women and children in Nithari?

The parents of the victims, who were mostly from poor slum-dwelling families, have given up. What does that say about India?

Video editor - Rajbir Kathait