India, July 31 -- New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of Surendra Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher in 12 cases of murder and rape linked to the Nithari killings, junking the appeals filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the victims' families.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai passed the order endorsing the findings of the Allahabad High Court in October 2023 that acquitted them. Koli will remain in jail as he is serving life imprisonment in one of the Nithari killings cases, where his conviction was upheld by the top court in 2011.

To be sure, Pandher and Koli were charged in 16 cases for the killing of young girls between 2005 and 2007. While the trial court convic...