Nithari: HC commutes Koli's death sentence, blames UP govt for

The death sentence of Nithari serial killings case convict Surender Koli was today commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad High Court which rapped the Uttar Pradesh government for the "inordinate and unexplained delay" in deciding his mercy petition.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P K S Baghel passed the order while allowing a PIL filed by People's Union for Democratic Rights, clubbed together with another petition filed by Koli himself.
Both the petitions had questioned the constitutionality of the execution of the death sentence in the light of the fact that Koli has been in jail for more than seven years and that the time taken in deciding his mercy petition alone was "three years and three months", violative of the Right to Life granted in Article 21 of the Constitution.

Koli, named as prime accused in the murder of a number of children at Nithari village in Gautam Buddh district, was awarded death sentence for the murder of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad on February 13, 2009.
The incident came to light in December 2006, when many children from Nithari went missing over a period of time and skeletons were recovered from near the residence of Koli's employee, Noida-based businessman Moninder Singh Pandher.
Coming down heavily on the state government, the high court noted that out of the three years and three months which elapsed in deciding Koli's mercy petition, "as many as 26 months" were taken up by the Uttar Pradesh government itself, which was "unnecessary and unreasonable".

"Once the judgement is pronounced and the death penalty attains finality, the execution must be at the earliest without unreasonable delay," the court said, adding "prolonged detention and the consequent wait for execution of death sentence is dehumanising for the person concerned and violates Article 21 of the Constitution".
Koli had filed his mercy petition before the Governor on May 07, 2011, which was rejected only on April 02, 2013, and forwarded to the Union Home Ministry on July 19, 2013, after the elapse of nearly three months.
The court also turned down the argument of Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh that in view of the gravity of the offence committed, the court should not review the execution of the death sentence.