India to execute serial killer next week

India will next week execute a man, dubbed "serial killer", for killing a minor girl more than eight years back, a senior government official said Saturday.
Surinder Koli, convicted in 2009 by a special court for the murder of a 14-year-old girl, will be hanged on September 12 at a prison in Meerut in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the official said, on condition of anonymity.
He will be executed as appeals against his death sentence have been turned down by higher courts, he said.
The case was dubbed "the house of horrors", after Koli, a domestic help, and his businessman employer Moninder Singh Pandher were held in 2007, following recovery of body parts near their house in Noida on the outskirts of the Indian capital.
According to police, at least 19 young women and children were raped, killed and dismembered at the house by Koli. He has confessed in court to cannibalism and necrophilia.
Though some of the other cases are still being heard by the court, it convicted Koli in 2009 and his employer for murdering the 14-year-old girl. Pandher was, however, later freed by a higher court.
India rarely executes prisoners on death row, with the exceptions of two hangings in the last two years.
While Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only militant caught alive in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged in November 2012 at a prison in the western city of Pune, Kashmiri fruit seller Afzal Guru was hanged at Tihar jail in the national capital in February 2013 for his role in 2001 Parliament attack.