Nithari case: 13 death sentences, not 1 year of freedom - Koli's legal Odyssey
Surinder Koli, the man convicted in the infamous Nithari killings, has died shortly after being acquitted by the Supreme Court of India. His legal journey included 13 death sentences and a last-minute stay of execution in 2014.
Why it matters
The case is a landmark in Indian legal history regarding the death penalty, due process, and the length of time taken for judicial resolution.
NOIDA: Surinder Koli was four hours from death on September 7, 2014. The black warrant bore his name and gallows protocol had been activated at Meerut district jail.It had been five years since a Ghaziabad CBI court pronounced the first of 13 death sentences against the man on trial for the Nithari killings of 2006.Hope of clemency had waned after it was upheld by the high court and Supreme Court and President rejected his mercy petition.After an intervention by lawyer Indira Jaising and a midnight hearing in Supreme Court, Koli was brought back from the gallows. In the years that followed, the convictions against him were overturned by Allahabad high court.On November 11, 2025, Supreme Court acquitted Koli, who for nearly two decades was called ‘Butcher of Nithari’, in the last case that had kept him in jail.
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