The Nithari Killings

In December 2006, skeletal remains were discovered in a drain behind a house in Nithari, a locality in Noida, India, leading to one of the country's most closely watched criminal cases. Domestic worker Surendra Koli and his employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, were arrested and charged in connection with the deaths of numerous women and children from the area.

A long legal battle

Koli and Pandher faced trial in sixteen separate cases over more than a decade. Courts convicted Koli in several of these trials and sentenced him to death, while Pandher was acquitted in most cases he faced.

Convictions overturned

In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in twelve of the cases, ruling that his confession, the central piece of evidence, could not be considered reliable or voluntary. In 2025, India's Supreme Court, using its rare curative jurisdiction, acquitted Koli in the one remaining case in which his conviction had stood, citing inconsistencies with the other rulings on the same evidence.

Current status

As of 2025, both men have been acquitted of all charges related to the Nithari deaths. Because of this, this page lists the case as unsolved: no one currently stands convicted of the killings, and the courts found the evidence originally used to convict Koli was not reliable.