The mother of Nithari killings convict Surender Koli Thursday said her son was innocent and said Koli's employer Moninder Singh Pandher was responsible for the killings.Kunti Devi met Koli at Meerut jail and said afterwards: "My son is innocent."Speaking to journalists outside the jail, she said Pandher was responsible for the killings and that he should be hanged before her son.Koli was convicted for the murder of a girl, Rimpa Halder, who went missing in Noida in December 2006. After a police investigation, she was found to have been murdered by Koli.
During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house in Nithari, an area in Noida, where Koli worked as domestic help.Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death, but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld Koli's death sentence.The Supreme Court also upheld the lower court's judgment. Koli had also filed a mercy petition before the president, but his plea was rejected.On Thursday, Kunti Devi said the "influential" Pandher was spared and a poor, innocent Koli was made scapegoat.Koli was transferred from the Dasna jail here to Meerut Sep 4. He was to be executed Sep 12 but the hanging was stayed till next Monday following a Supreme Court order.Although Koli had not asked to meet his family members, his mother arrived to see him.
Narayan Singh Rawat, village head of Mangrukhlal village in Almora region of Uttarakhand, also accompanied Kunti Devi to Meerut and met Koli.Rawat later told the media that during their meeting, Koli told him that he had been implicated in the case.He was taken into custody during which a conspiracy was hatched to implicate him and to spare Pandher from the charges."Now the villagers have realised that Koli is innocent. He had been implicated under the influence of money and power. So they have decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court to review the case under new provisions of an open court review," Rawat said."We are poor people, Pandher is influential. So all government organs favoured the influential man. Koli was made a scapegoat while his employer Pandher was responsible for the killings. He should be hanged," he said.