New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Wednesday rejected the mercy petition of Surender Koli, who was found guilty in the infamous serial killing of children in Nithari (Uttar Pradesh), along with four other death row convicts.
According to sources, Union home minister Rajnath Singh signed five files recommending Pre-sident Pranab Mukherjee that the mercy pleas of Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), Koli (UP), Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (MP) and Hol-iram Bordoloi (Assam) should be rejected.
Koli, convicted of rape and murder of several children in Noida’s Nit-hari area in 2005, was awarded the death penalty, along with his employer Moninder Singh Pandher, by a Ghaziabad court on February 13, 2009. The Allahabad High Court, later in 2009, confirmed the death sentence to Koli but acquitted Pan-dher of all the charges. Koli moved a mercy plea in 2011 before the President of India.
The President, who takes the final call on mercy pleas, can return the cases to the ministry for reconsideration, sources said. While 16 cases had been filed against Koli, he was awarded the death sentence in four cases.
