SC stays Nithari killer Surendra Koli's execution

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Nithari killings convict Surendra Koli by one week.

Chief justice designate H.L. Dattu passed the order in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, staying Koli's execution on his appeal. Koli was represented by senior counsel Indira Jaising.

Koli was to be executed Monday at Meerut jail.

Koli's mercy petition was earlier rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

He was transferred from the Dasna jail in Ghaziabad district to Meerut Sep 4 for the execution of his death warrant issued by a CBI court.

Officials earlier said he was to be hanged any time between Sep 7 and 12.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad issued a death warrant to Koli after his mercy petition was rejected by the president.

Koli was shifted to Meerut because of the absence of hanging facilities in Dasna.

He was convicted for the murder of a girl Rimpa Halder who went missing in Noida in December 2006. After a police investigation, she was found to have been murdered by Koli.

During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to a house in Nithari, an area in Noida where Koli worked as domestic help for businessman Moninder Singh Pandher.

Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death, but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld Koli's death sentence.

Koli's sentence was then upheld by the Supreme Court. He filed a mercy petition before the president which was turned down.