New Delhi - India is preparing to execute a man accused of killing and dismembering almost 20 young women and children in a case that was called the "house of horrors" murders.

Surinder Koli admitted eating some of the body parts.

Officials have said that Koli, who worked as a businessman's domestic worker, is due to be hanged on Friday in a prison in the north-central city of Meerut, Britain's The Independent daily reported.

Koli will be executed as appeals against his death sentence have been turned down by higher courts, China's Xinhua News Agency quoted a court official as saying.

In 2009, Koli and his employer, Moninder Singh Pandher, were convicted by a sessions court of murdering a 14-year-old girl, Rimpa Haldar.

Koli went on to be convicted of four more kidnappings, attempted rapes and murders but Pandher was subsequently freed by a higher court.

Pandher still faces trial in some outstanding cases, and could be re-sentenced to death if found guilty in any of those killings.

According to Xinhua, some of the cases being heard also involve Koli but the execution still goes ahead.

Koli and Pandher were arrested in 2007, after body parts were discovered on the grounds of Pandher's home in Noida, a satellite city to the east of New Delhi.

At the time, police said they believed at least 19 young women and children were raped, killed and chopped up.

Koli, who confessed to cannibalism and necrophilia, said he had lured the children to the property with sweets and chocolates.

Police were accused of failing to investigate some of the missing children cases because many of them belonged to poor, migrant families.

India's Supreme Court has said the death penalty should be reserved only for the "rarest of rare" cases.

There have been only two executions carried out in recent years.