Video Producer: Divya Uppal
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
(Trigger Warning: Mentions of rape and violence. Reader discretion advised.)
"We had hoped that the Allahabad High Court judgment would be in our favour and that the wrongdoers would have faced capital punishment," said Jhabbu Lal, the father of one of the deceased child victims in the 2006 Nithari killings.
Citing a lack of evidence, the Allahabad High Court on Monday, 16 October, acquitted the main accused Surendra Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher in the case of the gruesome rape and murder of eight children in Noida's Nithari 16 years ago.
"The court's decision to acquit the culprits was an injustice," said Sunita, the mother of the victim.
For Jhabbu Lal (63) and Sunita Devi (60), the loss of their 14-year-old daughter remains a heavy burden.
"Moninder Pandher had admitted at the police station, acknowledging that he mistakenly killed our daughter. When we went to file a report, the police refused to take our complaint and kept delaying the process. The police were involved with the culprits in this crime," Sunita Devi recounted.
The couple had to sell their property to finance the legal expenses for the case.
Ram Kishan, whose 3-year-old son was also a victim of the duo's alleged crime, expressed his dissatisfaction by throwing a brick at Pandher's abandoned home and questioning the high court verdict.
'Botched Investigation': Allahabad High Court
Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court raised concerns over the probe of the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"The investigation appears to be botched up, with fundamental norms of evidence collection being blatantly violated. It seems the investigation chose the easier path of implicating a poor servant of the house and demonizing him, without adequately probing the more serious aspects of potential involvement in organized organ trading," the Allahabad High Court said in its ruling.
Both the accused had previously been sentenced to death by a special CBI court in 2009.
A Look Back
The Nithari killings grabbed headlines after horrifying details of several children's murders came to light in 2006. The mortal remains of the children were discovered in a drain near Pandher's residence in Noida's Nithari.
Pandher and Koli were accused of kidnapping, raping, dismembering, and cannibalising the bodies of children and women.
In December 2006, both Pandher and Koli were apprehended. Over 19 First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed against them, relating to crimes against 19 different girls.
However, the death sentences delivered in 2009 have now been overturned.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)