Nithari killer Surinder Koli
Nithari killer Surinder Koli's execution has been put on hold till November 25 by the Allahabad High Court, which today asked the Centre to explain the delay in deciding his mercy petition.
The court acted on a petition by the NGO, People's Union for Democratic Rights. The Supreme Court had ruled earlier this year that a death sentence can be commuted to life because of a long delay in a decision on a convict's mercy plea.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had rejected Koli's petition seeking a review of his death sentence.
Koli, 42, is a self-confessed cannibal found guilty of murdering young women and children at a bungalow near Delhi. Arguing his case, senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani had said in the Supreme Court that Koli's sentence was an error and vital evidence was suppressed in the case. He had also suggested that the murders that Koli was found guilty of were by a "medical expert involved in organ trading."
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, HL Dattu, in the first open court hearing of a review petition in a death sentence case, said, "We are fully satisfied that this court has not committed any error that may persuade us to review the order."
Koli was to be hanged last month in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh but his execution was suspended twice last month by the Supreme Court.
Koli had confessed to having sex with his dead victims and also eating some of their body parts.
He worked at the home of Moninder Singh Pandher in the area of Nithari in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi where as many as 19 girls are feared to have been raped and killed. He was sentenced to hang for murdering 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in 2005.
He has already been convicted of five cases of murder, rape and cannibalism while 14 more cases are still pending. Though Moninder Singh Pandher was also charged with first degree murder in the same case, he was acquitted in 2009. Mr Pandher was released from jail a month ago.