Surendra Koli, the only convict in the sensational 2006 Nithari mass killings, is now a free man as the Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted him of charges in the last such case and ordered his forthwith release if not required in any other matter.

This was the 13th case in the Nithari killings in which Koli was acquitted. He was already acquitted in the 12 other related cases.

The Nithari killings had come to light with the discovery of the skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s house at Nithari in Noida on December 29, 2006. Koli was the domestic help at Pandher’s house at that time.

Allowing Koli’s curative petition challenging his conviction in the case related to the alleged rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Nithari, the ape

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