“If Not Koli, Then Who Killed Our Children?” — Nithari Victims Still Seek Justice

Noida: Nearly two decades after the horrific Nithari killings, the Supreme Court’s recent verdict has once again reopened old wounds for the victims’ families. The court’s decision to acquit one of the prime accused, Surinder Koli, has left many parents devastated and searching for answers.

Among them is 63-year-old Jhabbulal and his wife Sunita (60), who lost their daughter Jyoti in 2006 — one of the many innocent victims whose remains were found near house number D-5 in Noida’s Nithari village. “If Koli didn’t kill them, then who did?” Jhabbulal asks, his voice trembling with emotion. “If he’s been acquitted, then why was he kept in jail all these years? Who will tell us the truth?”

The couple, originally from Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh, had moved to Nithari four decades ago in search of work. Jhabbulal earned a living by ironing clothes in the same neighbourhood that would later become synonymous with one of India’s most gruesome serial killings.

“I had six children. Jyoti was my fifth,” he recalls. “She disappeared one day in 2006. Later, her body was found in the drain outside that bungalow.” That drain, from which multiple children’s skeletons were recovered, became a place of unending sorrow for dozens of families.

For nearly 20 years, Jhabbulal fought tirelessly for justice — from the lower courts to the High Court. “I spent everything I had,” he says. “I even sold my valuables and our house in Delhi’s Sangam Vihar to pay for legal expenses.”

But now, after years of struggle, the latest acquittal has crushed the family’s hopes. “This verdict has broken us,” he says. “We fought believing that the guilty would be punished. Now, only God can deliver justice.”

Sunita, Jyoti’s mother, still relives the horror every time she passes by that bungalow. “Even after so many years, the pain hasn’t lessened,” she says, tears welling up. “Whenever I cross that house, it feels like I’m standing again in the moment when my world ended. We never got our daughter back — only her memories and the endless hope that someday, justice will be done.”

The Nithari Tragedy remains etched in India’s collective memory — a chilling reminder of brutality, systemic failure, and the enduring pain of those w