Overview
- Allowing a curative petition, a bench of CJI BR Gavai with Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath set aside Koli’s final conviction in the Nithari cases.
- The court recalled its 2011 judgment upholding his conviction and a 2014 review dismissal, nullifying the underlying 2009 trial court rulings.
- Justice Vikram Nath pronounced that Koli stands acquitted and directed his immediate release if not required in any other matter.
- The order follows the Allahabad High Court’s 2023 acquittals of Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher and the Supreme Court’s July 2025 dismissal of 14 appeals against those acquittals.
- Investigative flaws cited across the litigation included reliance on a Section 164 confession recorded after prolonged custody and recoveries under Section 27 that courts later viewed as unreliable.