Nithari: Indian parents ask who killed their children as Surinder Koli freed in 'house of horrors' murders

Twenty years after police found the bodies of 19 women and children in Nithari, the case is back in the spotlight.

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On 12 November, the Supreme Court acquitted him in the final case pending against him, accepting his claim that his confession - which included admissions of cannibalism and necrophilia - had been extracted under torture.

The case dates back to December 2006, when police identified a bungalow in Noida, a suburb of the capital Delhi, as the site where women and children were killed and dismembered, and some allegedly raped. Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli, his servant, were arrested after body parts were found near their home.

The revelations triggered national outrage. Parents accused police of ignoring complaints that children had been going missing for more than two years. The case also exposed India's deep social divides: this occurred in an affluent enclave, while the victims were mostly from the neighbouring slums of Nithari, home to poor migrant families.

The two men were convicted of rape and murder and spent years on death row. Moninder Singh Pandher was freed in 2023, with the court eventually finding there to be a lack of evidence. Now his servant is out of jail too, bringing to an end the long judicial process in one of India's most disturbing criminal cases.