SC to hear Koli's death review plea today

Koli’s execution was stayed for a week by judges following a landmark ruling that said every death-row convict has the “fundamental right” to make a fresh appeal in an open court.

On the basis of the order the hanging had been postponed by a week. The midnight order, at around 1.40 am, was given to Meerut Jail where he was lodged, from the home of Justice HL Dattu, the next Chief Justice of India, after a review of his death sentence sought by his lawyer Indira Jaising, sources said.

Koli was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2005 and was set to be hanged between September 7 and 12 in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

There are 11 cases of murder pending against Koli. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had also filed a charge sheet against him in 16 cases where he had allegedly killed children after sexually abusing them.

Out of total 16 cases, Koli has been awarded death sentence in five of them so far and the rest are still under trial, sources said., He has been sentenced to death particularly for the gruesome murder of a 14-year-old girl, Rimpa Halder, who mysteriously went missing and was later found murdered by Koli, after it came to light in December, 2006.

The skeletal remains were recovered from a drain adjacent to the house where Koli was working as a domestic help at Nithari area of Noida in Uttar Pradesh. Koli’s employer Moninder Singh Pandher was also sentenced to death in Rimpa Halder case but later acquitted by the Allahabad High Court.