Krishna Pujari
THE President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday rejected mercy petition of Surendra Koli, who brutally killed and later axed children in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Besides Koli, President also rejected mercy pleas of Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (Madhya Pradesh) and Holiram Bordoloi (Assam).
According to media reports, 42-year-old Koli was awarded death sentence by a lower court which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011.
The Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also rejected the pleas and also recommended to the President.
The “Nithari Kaand” had shockwave the nation in which Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house in Nithari. Remains of several missing children were found near the house. Police had filed 16 cases against Koli. He was awarded death sentence in four of them so far and others are still under trial.
The two sister’s case
The two sisters Renukabai and Seema allegedly kidnapped 13 children between 1990 to 1996 and killed nine of them. Along with their mother and an accomplice Kiran Shinde were also accused in to the matter. Later mother died in 1997 and Shinde turned an approver in the case.
The Supreme Court had confirmed the death penalty of the two sisters on August 31, 2006.
Renukabai and Seema used to kidnap children from localities of poor people and force them to commit thefts, lift goods and snatch chains. But when the children grew old enough to understand things, they were brutally killed. Some were found with their heads smashed, strangulated, thrashed with iron rods and thrown on railway tracks.