PRAYAGRAJ:  Citing lack of evidence, the Allahabad high court on Monday acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli in the 2006 Nithari serial killings that had shaken the nation, for many the chilling crime targeting young girls that came to light with skeletal remains being found behind Pandher's bungalow in Sector-31 of Noida near the Nithari village

The High Court let the duo go due to a lack of evidence and because the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

With this order, the death sentences awarded to Koli and Pandher stand cancelled and pave the way for Pandher to walk out of jail as a free man 17 years after the heinous crimes came to light,  although Koli would remain behind bars as he still faces life imprisonment in one case.

A two-judge bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and S H A Rizvi said that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and allowed the appeals filed by Koli and Pandher, who were challenging the death sentence given by a CBI court in Ghaziabad on 13 February 2009, as the case was classified as the "rarest of rare".

Koli, who is in a Ghaziabad prison, was earlier sentenced to death in 12 cases while Pandher, lodged in a Noida jail, faced a death sentence in two cases. Both were charged with rape and murder and sentenced to death in the killings that horrified the nation with the details of sexual assault, brutal murder and hints of possible cannibalism.

In all, 19 cases had been lodged against Pandher and Koli in 2007. The CBI had filed closure reports in three of the 19 cases due to lack of evidence. In the remaining 16 cases, Koli was earlier acquitted in three cases and his death sentence in one case was commuted to life.

The Uttar Pradesh government's plea challenging the high court earlier commuting Koli's death sentence to life imprisonment before the Supreme Court is still pending. He was acquitted in the remaining 12 cases on Monday.