Almora: Hours after the Allahabad high court commuted the death sentence of Nithari killer Surendra Koli into life imprisonment on Wednesday, there were cheers in a far-off village in Almora district of Uttarakhand.
Koli's 62-year-old mother Kunti Devi who lives in Koli's native Mungrukhal village here, told TOI: "I am very happy that God has finally listened to our prayers. After 8 years of praying, I knew that my son has done no wrong. Now even courts seem to have realized what I always knew."
Devi, who had refused to sign Koli's death warrant for his scheduled hanging in September and then met him in Meerut after 8 years, said, "I want my son and daughter-in-law to come back to our native village in Almora, whenever that happens."
Residents of this nondescript village are elated over Wednesday's judgment. There is a unanimous opinion here that people from the hills cannot commit such heinous crime and Koli was framed.
However, his neighbours in Mungrukhal never believed that the Surinder Koli they knew could have committed these crimes.
The village gram Pradhan, Anand Ram, who has been a childhood friend of Koli, said he never doubted Koli's innocence in the case. "I haven't heard anything about Moninder Singh Pandher. What's happening in the cases related to him? I always felt that he, and not Surinder, was the real culprit."
"I have known Koli for many years. We grew up together. Having known him, I cannot believe that he could have done something so terrible," he added.
Koli had moved out of Almora over ten years ago, and had been in Moninder Singh Pandher's employment in Noida's infamous Nithari house for over a year when the crimes came to light in 2007.
Koli is accused of sexually exploiting several children, killing many of them, and even cooking their flesh. Police said that about 30 children were victims in the case. The crimes occurred in 2005-06. Koli was convicted of five murders.
In September Koli had got a fresh lease of life after the Supreme Court stayed his execution hours before he was to hang. Koli's mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee and he was taken from the Dasna jail in Ghaziabad district to Meerut on September 4 for the execution of his death warrant issued by a CBI court.
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