Surinder Koli has been convicted of killing several children in Noida
Surinder Koli, the self-confessed cannibal found guilty of murdering a series of young women and children at a bungalow near Delhi, has asked prison officials if hanging is "painful", reports news agency IANS.
Koli, 42, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2005 and was set to be hanged between September 7 and 12 in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. His execution was stayed for a week on Monday by judges after a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court which said every death-row convict has the "fundamental right" to a fresh appeal in an open court.
"The open court will now decide whether his death sentence can be reviewed or not," his lawyer, Indira Jaising had said.
Koli had confessed to having sex with his dead victims and also eating some of their body parts.
Koli worked at the home of Maninder Singh Pandher in the area of Nithari in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi where as many as 19 girls are feared to have been raped and killed. He was sentenced to hang for murdering 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in 2005.
He has already been convicted of five cases of murder, rape and cannibalism while a further 14 cases are still pending, although the death sentence only relates to the killing of Rimpa.
Though Pandher was also charged with first degree murder in the same case, he was acquitted in 2009.
Koli has been asked for Hindu religious books and was visited by his mother yesterday, said news agency IANS. It quoted an unnamed official as reporting,
"He (Koli) is enquiring from prison staff about the date when he would be hung and was the whole procedure a painful and long one."