New Delhi, Nov. 12 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Surendra Koli in the last of 13 cases pertaining to the Nithari killings incident, holding that the 2011 verdict upholding his guilt could not be sustained when he had already been acquitted in 12 other connected cases arising from the same set of facts and evidentiary material. Koli was previously convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in this particular case. A bench of Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai and justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said that retaining one conviction while all others based on the same confession and recoveries had been set aside would be anomalous and "inimical to the integrity of adjudication." The court ordered that Koli "be released forthwith, if not wanted in any other case." In a strongly worded judgment authored by justice Nath, the bench observed that "when final orders of this court speak with discordant voices on an identical record, the integrity of adjudication is imperilled, and public confidence is shaken." PX...