Nithari serial rapes case: President rejects mercy petitions of Surendra Koli

New Delhi: Mercy petitions of six death row convicts including Surendra Koli, found guilty in the sensational Nithari serial rapes and killings, have been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides Koli, mercy pleas of Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), Rajendra Pralhadrao Wasnik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (Madhya Pradesh) and Holiram Bordoloi (Assam) have been rejected following recommendations of the Home Ministry, official sources said.

42-year-old Koli, who brutally killed and later axed children in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, was awarded death sentence by a lower court, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011.

In a case that outraged the nation, Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house in Nithari. Remains of several missing children were found near the house.

While 16 cases were filed against Koli, he has been awarded death sentence in four of them so far and others are still under trial.

Sisters Renukabai and Seema along with their mother and another accomplice Kiran Shinde, kidnapped 13 children between 1990 to 1996 and killed nine of them. However, the prosecution could prove only five murders. The two sisters were given death sentence.

The case against the mother had to be abated as she died in 1997 while Shinde turned an approver in the case.

The two sisters used to kidnap children from localities of poor people in the areas of their operation and force them to commit thefts, lift goods and snatch chains.