India
oi-Ashish Rana
Surendra Koli the main accused in 2006 Nithari killing case in Noida, has died by suicide in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. The incident took place on Friday, 18 September in Bhupatwala area of North Haridwar just a few months after Supreme Court acquitted him in the last case against him.
Surendra Koli, accused in the 2006 Nithari killings case and acquitted by the Supreme Court in November 2025, died by suicide in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. His body was found hanging inside a tea stall where he had reportedly been working.
Koli Found Hanging Inside Tea Stall
According to the media report, Koli’s body was found hanging from a rope inside a tea stall opposite the Lalmata Temple on Sapt Sarovar Road. He had been reportedly been working as a tea seller in Haridwar for the last few days.
The Sapt Rishi police outpost received the information about the incident and when police reached the location, they identified dead person as Surendra Koli. He was a resident of Mangrukhal village in the Bhikiyasain area of Almora. Police have informed his relatives and started the investigation about the circumstances of the death.
Nithari Killings Case Put Koli In Jail For Years
Surendra Koli was a domestic worker at Moninder Singh Pandher’s Noida house D-5 in Sector 31. The Nithari case became a nationwide news after some human remains were found in the drain near the house in December 2006.
Many children and young women had gone missing from the area between 2005 to 2006. Police arrested Koli and Pandher accused in multiple cases involving murder, rape, abduction and destruction of evidence. The CBI later registered 16 cases against them.
Supreme Court Acquitted Koli In 2025
Koli was initially convicted in multiple cases and received death sentences. His death sentence in one case was later commuted to life imprisonment in 2015 because of the long delay in deciding his mercy petition.
In 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli and Pandher in several Nithari cases, finding that the prosecution had failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The Supreme Court later upheld those acquittals.
In November 2025, the Supreme Court allowed Koli’s curative petition in the last remaining case. The three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Surya Kant and Vikram Nath set aside his conviction and acquitted him of charges under Sections 302, 364, 376 and 201 of the IPC. The court ordered his release if he was not required in any other case.
The Supreme Court said the conviction could not stand because the evidentiary basis relied upon in the case had been rejected in the other Nithari prosecutions. The court also observed that the identity of the actual perpetrator had not been established according to the required legal standards.
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