The Supreme Court took just 90 minutes to seal the fate of Surinder Koli by confirming his death sentence in a case of Nithari serial rape-cum-killing episode, which perhaps may be the fastest decision by it in a capital punishment hearing.
The final hearing saw a bench comprising justices Markandey Katju and Gyansudha Misra giving credence to the confessional statement of Koli to put a seal of approval on the decisions of the trial court and the Allahabad High Court sending him to the gallows.
The judges, after hearing Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha, asked 39-year-old Koli's counsel to argue the case against his conviction. However, the lawyer at the outset said, he would make submissions against the capital punishment, which did not impress the bench.
The bench said, "Koli has not retracted his confessional statement" and the circumstances in which the crime was committed was "premeditated" falling in the "rarest of rare category".
"In the statement, he (Koli) described how he allured the girls and then strangulated them. He also confessed that he used to have sex with dead bodies and would eat parts of human body after cooking them," the Bench said in the order, while holding that "no mercy can be shown to him".
A magistrate on March 1, 2007 had recorded Koli's confessional statement which he had given voluntarily. "We are satisfied that it was a voluntary confession. He was repeatedly told by the magistrate that he was not bound to confess and it might go against him. Despite that he went ahead with his confession," the bench noted.
It said the confessional statement was corroborated by the circumstantial evidence as "body parts of the victims were found in a nullah (drain) near the house and weapons used in the crime were also recovered," adding that DNA tests confirmed the identities of the victims.
"We see no reasons to interfere in the findings of the trial court and the High Court that he is guilty of killing Rimpa Haldar. It appears that he is a serial killer and the case comes under the ambit of the rarest of the rare.The killings by Koli are horrifying and barbaric. He used a definite method in committing the crimes", the bench said.
