New Delhi: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear Uttar Pradesh government's plea challenging Allahabad High Court's order of commutating death penalty into life term awarded to Surender Koli.
An apex court bench headed by Justice HL Dattu also issued notice to Koli, convicted in 2006 Nithari serial killings case.
The death sentence of Koli was commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad high court on the ground of 'inordinate delay' in deciding his mercy petition.
The Allahabad HC order came on a PIL filed by NGO People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) which contended that the period elapsed in disposal of Koli's mercy petition was 3 years and 3 months and, as such, execution of death sentence would be in violation of the Right to Life granted in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Koli was convicted for the murder of a girl Rimpa Halder who went missing in Noida adjoining Delhi in Dec 2006.
After investigations by the police she was found to have been murdered by Koli.
During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to a house in Nithari village of Noida where Koli worked as domestic help for businessman Moninder Singh Pandher who owned the house. Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death in the case but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld the death sentence of Koli.
