Overview
- A bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath allowed Koli’s curative petition and directed that he be released forthwith if not wanted in any other matter.
- The court recalled its 2011 judgment upholding conviction and the 2014 review dismissal, and it set aside the relevant trial and high court orders in that case.
- Judges noted the surviving prosecution rested on a Section 164 confession and a kitchen-knife recovery under Section 27 of the Evidence Act, evidence found inadequate across connected cases.
- Koli had earlier been acquitted in 12 other Nithari prosecutions, and in July the Supreme Court dismissed 14 appeals filed by the CBI and victims’ families challenging those acquittals.
- The ruling caps nearly two decades of litigation stemming from skeletal remains found behind Moninder Singh Pandher’s Noida home in 2006, after which the CBI registered multiple cases.