Greater Noida, Nov. 13 -- Surendra Koli walked out of Luksar Jail in Greater Noida on Wednesday evening, 18 years after his arrest in connection with the grisly 2006 Nithari killings - and a day after the Supreme Court acquitted him in the last of the 13 cases pending against him. Koli, dressed in a powder-blue shirt, black pants, and a navy-blue jacket, stepped out at 7.16pm, bringing to a close a nearly two-decade-long saga that had once horrified the country. The 49-year-old former domestic help was accompanied by four of his lawyers. Koli was 30 when he was arrested on December 29, 2006, after skeletal remains, skulls, and bones were discovered stuffed in plastic bags in the backyard and drain of his employer Moninder Singh Pandher's bungalow in Noida's Sector 31. The killings, involving at least 19 children and young women, were among the most chilling crimes to emerge from the National Capital Region. "He was calm when informed about his release and did not show much emotion," said Luksar jail superintendent Brijesh Kumar. Investigators had accused Koli and Pandher of abducting, sexually assaulting, and killing the victims - children aged between five and 14 and women up to 25 - before disposing of their remains. Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death in multiple cases, the last in 2017. But soon, the cases began to come undone. Beginning October 2023, the Allahabad high court, and later the Supreme Court, began overturning those convictions, citing serious flaws in the investigation, fabricated confessions, and lack of credible evidence. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld that view, acquitting Koli in the final pending case. The bench held that his conviction could not stand when he had already been cleared in 12 others cases.arun singh...