Surinder Koli, convict in the Nithari killings, got a breather when senior superintendent of the Chaudhary Charan Singh district jail S.H.M. Rizvi informed him on Monday morning that the Supreme Court had stayed his hanging by a week.
“When I informed him about a week’s stay on his execution, Koli heaved a sigh of relief but he didn’t let it become too apparent on his face,” Mr. Rizvi told The Hindu . Mr. Rizvi added that his reaction to the development was in contrast to the days when there used to be a completely blank expression on his face. The apex court had in the early hours of Monday stayed Koli’s execution for a week until a fresh review petition challenging his death penalty was heard in an open court room by a Bench of three judges of the apex court.
“Largely silent”Koli, who has been put up in the high-security cell of the Meerut jail, has “largely been silent,” added Mr. Rizvi. “He has been silent since the day he arrived in Meerut jail. Otherwise, he has been behaving normally,” he said.
There has been no request from his family, or from anybody to meet him, Mr. Rizvi told The Hindu . “If we get any such request from his family or friends, we would certainly facilitate the meeting,” he added.
Koli, who was found guilty of rapes and murder of several children between 2005 and 2006, was sentenced to death in four cases and his death sentence was confirmed by the apex court in 2011.
