Surendra Koli, acquitted in Nithari serial killings, found dead in Haridwar - The Indian Express

Surendra Koli, who was acquitted in the 2006 Nithari serial murders case last year and walked out of Greater Noida’s Kasna Jail 10 months ago, was found dead in Haridwar on Friday.

Haridwar Police said Koli, 53, had been living in the city for over a month, running a small tea stall in the Sapt Sarovar area on Bhupatwala Road.

Police have informed his family and said no suicide note was recovered.

Circle Officer, Haridwar City, Shishupal Singh Negi, confirmed that it appeared to be a suicide. The body was sent to the Haridwar District Hospital for a post-mortem.

It was an acquaintance, Dharmender Kaushik, who found Koli dead around 10 am and informed the police.

Police said Kaushik told them he found the shop shut and knocked on the shutter but got no response. He initially thought Koli, who was diabetic, was asleep.

According to police sources, Koli arrived in Haridwar one-and-a-half months ago and tried to find accommodation in Roshanabad, but couldn’t produce an Aadhaar card required for police verification.

Around the same time, sources told The Indian Express, Koli managed to find work as a security guard at a factory. After he left that job, Kaushik helped him get another position as a guard through a firm at an apartment, sources said, adding that Koli left that job too.

About three days before his death, Koli rented a small tea stall in Bhupatwala, opposite Lal Mata Temple, in Kaushik’s name, according to police sources.

Koli brought his belongings from Roshanabad and began living inside the stall. He had been selling tea and biscuits there for just two or three days.

A diary found at the shop, which appeared to contain Koli’s daily expenditure and work-related accounts, has been collected by the police.

Another acquaintance, Jai Kashyap, 28, said he met Koli in Roshanabad around 25 days ago. Koli had introduced himself as Sada Ram from Almora, and told him he was looking for a room and work. Kashyap helped him find both.

It was only after his death that Kashyap learnt his true identity. “I came to know his name today,” Kashyap told The Indian Express in Haridwar. “I helped him as a human being.”

He said Koli had never told him that he was in trouble. “But I could see that he was troubled by something,” he said. “I did not know why.”

Koli and his employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, were arrested in December 2006 after skeletal remains were discovered in a drain and on an open strip of land behind a house owned by Pandher in Noida’s Sector 31. Koli worked there as a domestic help.

Digging eventually unearthed 19 bodies, mostly of children who had vanished from the nearby Nithari village.

Noida police had filed 19 FIRs against Pandher and Koli relating to crimes against 19 different girls, and the CBI filed chargesheets in 16 of them.

The prosecution’s case rested on two pillars: an alleged confession Koli gave before a magistrate — describing luring, strangling and dismembering victims — and the recovery of remains supposedly based on his disclosures.

In 2009, both Koli and Pandher were convicted and sentenced to death by a special CBI court for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old. On appeal, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher but upheld Koli’s conviction and death sentence.

Koli then approached the Supreme Court, which dismissed his appeal in 2011 and a review petition in 2014.

In September 2014, an execution warrant was issued against Koli, and he was moved to Meerut jail with a hanging scheduled for 5.30 am. Senior advocate Indira Jaising rushed the matter to a judge’s residence at night, and a bench was convened.

The execution was stayed just hours before the hanging was due to happen.

He was tried and convicted in 12 other Nithari cases between 2010 and 2021 and sentenced to death. All were based on the same evidence — his 2007 confession and the recoveries made in 2006. Pandher was also convicted and sentenced to death in two of them.

But in October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in all 12 cases and Pandher in the two against him.

On November 11, 2025, a bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai overturned its 2011 ruling and ordered Koli’s release, calling the original investigation “botched”.

Pandher walked out of a Noida prison in 2023.