Nearly 20 years after police found the bodies of 19 women and children near a bungalow dubbed India's house of horrors, the case is back in the spotlight - because Surinder Koli, the last of the two men convicted, has walked free.
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.
The BBC visited Nithari a few days after the judgement, and found that most of the victims' families no longer lived there. Two, who remain in the neighbourhood, said they were trying to come to terms with the court order and wondering - if Pandher and Koli didn't, then who killed our children?
In interviews since his release, Moninder Singh Pandher has said he was innocent. Surinder Koli has not been seen in public since leaving prison and has not said anything, but his lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhry said all the evidence against him was fabricated.
Jhabbu Lal Kanaujia, a father whose daughter was a victim, expressed despair and frustration over the verdict, saying, If they are innocent, then how come they were in prison for 18 years? The acquittal of Koli has reawakened his grief and anger, prompting him to call for accountability from the police who failed to act on the missing children's reports sooner.
Moving forward, families are left grappling with the painful uncertainty of the Nithari case. If they are not guilty, then who is? they cry out, as they demand justice in a justice system that they've come to regard with skepticism.
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.
The BBC visited Nithari a few days after the judgement, and found that most of the victims' families no longer lived there. Two, who remain in the neighbourhood, said they were trying to come to terms with the court order and wondering - if Pandher and Koli didn't, then who killed our children?
In interviews since his release, Moninder Singh Pandher has said he was innocent. Surinder Koli has not been seen in public since leaving prison and has not said anything, but his lawyer Yug Mohit Chaudhry said all the evidence against him was fabricated.
Jhabbu Lal Kanaujia, a father whose daughter was a victim, expressed despair and frustration over the verdict, saying, If they are innocent, then how come they were in prison for 18 years? The acquittal of Koli has reawakened his grief and anger, prompting him to call for accountability from the police who failed to act on the missing children's reports sooner.
Moving forward, families are left grappling with the painful uncertainty of the Nithari case. If they are not guilty, then who is? they cry out, as they demand justice in a justice system that they've come to regard with skepticism.
