Top court upholds death sentence for serial killer

New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentence of a serial killer of Nithari, a New Delhi suburb, describing the crime as horrifying and gruesome.

The court noted that Koli, after luring the female victims to his employer's house in Noida, strangled them and tried to have sex with the dead bodies. Thereafter, he cut the bodies into pieces, cooked some of them and ate them.

An apex court bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said the crime committed by Koli fell into the category of the "rarest of rare" case deserving nothing short of the death sentence. The apex court concurred with the Allahabad High Court verdict upholding the death sentence awarded to Koli in the Rimpa Haldar case by the trial court. Besides, this case, Koli is facing trial in 16 other cases.

While confirming the sentence, the apex court, however, did not say anything about Pandher, who also was awarded death sentence by the trial court but acquitted by the High Court.

The Nithari killings pertain to the horrific discovery in December 2009 of body parts in a drain behind Pandher's bungalow. The remains were of 19 young women and children from Nithari village, who were allegedly raped and killed in the Pandher bungalow.