Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court expressed its dissatisfaction with the investigation of the 2006 Nithari killings on Monday, stating it was a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies, media reports said.
The court criticized the handling of crucial aspects like arrest, recovery, and confession, deeming it disheartening, reported India Today.
In its ruling, the High Court acquitted the two main accused in the Nithari murders case.
Surinder Koli was declared innocent in 12 cases, while Moninder Singh Pandher was found innocent in two cases.
Consequently, the death sentences previously given to Koli and Pandher by the trial courts have been nullified.
The failure of the investigation to probe the possible involvement of organ trade, despite specific recommendations made by the High Level Committee constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India, in Nithari killings is nothing short of a betrayal of public trust by responsible agencies, the High Court order said in its concluding remark, said the India Today report.
The High Court further said the probe was botched up and the basic norms of collecting evidence had been brazenly violated.
It appears to us that the investigation opted for the easy course of implicating a poor servant of the house by demonizing him, without taking due care of probing more serious aspects of possible involvement of organized activity of organ trading, the High Court was further quoted as saying by India Today.
The Nithari serial killings pertaining to the kidnapping, sexual abuse, and brutal murder of children and young women.
Koli, who was the house-help of Pandher, the owner of the house where these crimes occurred, were the main accused.
It was alleged that Koli would bring the Pandhers house luring them with sweets and chocolates. He would then kill them, rape their corpses, cut the bodies into pieces, and cook and eat the body parts. He would discard the bones and other body parts into a drain or open backyard of the house.
