PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad High Court on Monday acquitted domestic help Surendra Koli and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher in the 2006 Nithari serial killings for lack of evidence, recalling for many the chilling crime targeting young girls that came to light with skeletal remains being found behind a Noida bungalow.

A two-judge bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and SHA Rizvi allowed the appeals by Koli and Pandher, challenging the death sentence given by the CBI court in Ghaziabad.

The HC said the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The HC order may pave the way for Pandher to walk out of jail,” the businessman’s lawyer Manisha Bhandari said. However, Koli is likely to remain behind bars. He still faces life in one case.

A CBI official said a call on the next steps would be taken after studying the judgment copy.

Koli, who is in Ghaziabad prison, was sentenced to death in 12 cases being heard by Allahabad HC. His former employer 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 on sexual assault, brutal murder, and hints of possible cannibalism.