New Delhi: Not just terror acts, even crime against women and children will bear the maximum punishment is the message of the Narendra Modi government which is set to challenge the Allahabad high court’s verdict commuting the death sentence of Nithari killer Surinder Koli in the sensational NIthari serial killings of 2006.
After being awarded capital punishment, Koli’s mercy petition had been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee in 2014. However, the Allahabad high court had said in last month that there was an ‘inordinate delay’ in deciding his mercy plaint and commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
The home ministry has decided to move the SC against the high court verdict, telling the Apex Court that Koli must be executed and there has been no delay in his case. It will tell the SC that the legal process was duly completed, including the rejection of his recall application by the Apex Court.
Sources said the commutation of Koli’s sentence could have a rippling effect on other death row cases. “This is a fit case for hanging which deserves the maximum penalty. If death sentence has been included under the criminal law for rape cases, then this case is no exception,” said an official.
