Surendra Koli, Acquitted in Nithari Killings Case, Found Dead at Tea Stall in Haridwar

Yugcharan News / 19-09-2026

Surendra Koli, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in November 2025 in the last remaining case linked to the Nithari killings, was found dead inside a tea stall in Haridwar on Friday, police said. Koli had started operating the tea stall only a few days earlier and had been living in Haridwar for several months after spending years at the centre of one of India's most closely followed criminal cases.

Police said Koli was found dead under circumstances that were being investigated. No suicide note was recovered from the spot, according to Uttarakhand Police. Authorities have begun an inquiry to establish the circumstances surrounding his death.

Kundan Singh Rana, a police officer, said the police were investigating the matter and that Koli's family had been informed. Koli was originally from Mangrukhal village in Almora and had been residing in Haridwar for the past few months.

Before renting the tea stall, Koli had reportedly worked as a security guard. His decision to start a small tea business came months after the Supreme Court's final acquittal in the Nithari case in which he had remained a convicted accused for years.

The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear, and police had not established a definitive cause at the time of the initial report.

Supreme Court Acquitted Koli in Last Remaining Nithari Case

Koli's death comes less than a year after the Supreme Court acquitted him in the last remaining criminal case connected with the Nithari killings.

In November 2025, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in a case dating back to 2011. The court noted that Koli had already been acquitted in 12 other cases arising from the same broader investigation and involving substantially similar evidence, including his confession and alleged recoveries.

The Supreme Court held that the remaining conviction could not be sustained when the same evidence had been found unreliable in the other cases. The court observed that allowing one conviction to continue despite the acquittals in the other 12 cases would amount to a “travesty of justice”.

The court also said there was no principled basis for maintaining the remaining conviction when the confession and recoveries relied upon by the prosecution had already been rejected in the other cases.

Koli had been arrested in 2006, when he was around 30 years old. Over the course of the Nithari trials, he received multiple death sentences in cases concerning the disappearance and killings of children and women from the area.

His convictions were subsequently challenged through a lengthy legal process, eventually resulting in acquittals in the cases against him.

Nithari Killings Shocked the Country

The Nithari killings came to public attention in December 2006 after human remains, including bones and skulls, were recovered from an area around bungalow D-5 in Sector 31, Noida.

The property belonged to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher. Koli had worked there as a domestic help.

The discovery of the remains followed reports about missing children and women from the surrounding locality. The case quickly became a major national story, with questions raised over how the disappearances had continued and whether authorities had failed to respond adequately to complaints from local residents.

Investigators accused Koli of involvement in the murders. Prosecutors alleged that he had lured victims to the house, killed them and, in some cases, committed acts of cannibalism. Pandher was also accused in connection with the case.

However, the allegations and evidence presented during the trials were subjected to extensive judicial scrutiny over the years.

The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation in January 2007. A substantial part of the prosecution case rested on Koli's confession, which was recorded after he had spent weeks in custody, along with alleged recoveries of material evidence.

One such recovery involved a knife that investigators claimed had been found beneath a terrace water tank.

As the cases progressed through different courts, doubts emerged about the reliability and admissibility of several key pieces of evidence. Courts ultimately acquitted Koli in multiple cases, with the Supreme Court later relying on the treatment of the same evidence in those proceedings while deciding the final case.

Pandher Was Also Acquitted

Moninder Singh Pandher, the owner of the Noida house, was also prosecuted in connection with the Nithari cases.

Pandher remained in jail for several years during the legal proceedings before being acquitted. He was released from prison on October 20, 2023, following the court proceedings that cleared him in the cases in which he remained accused.

The legal outcome of the Nithari cases changed significantly from the initial period following the discovery of the remains. What began as a case associated with multiple allegations of murder and other serious crimes eventually resulted in a series of acquittals as courts examined the evidence presented by the prosecution.

Koli's final acquittal by the Supreme Court in 2025 marked the end of the criminal proceedings against him in the last remaining Nithari case.

Koli Had Started a New Life in Haridwar

Following his release and acquittals, Koli had been living away from Noida. According to Uttarakhand Police, he had been staying in Haridwar for several months.

He initially worked as a security guard before renting a space and starting a tea stall. Police said the stall had been operational for only a few days before he was found dead there.

The death was reported on Friday, prompting police officials to reach the location and begin an investigation.

Investigators did not find a suicide note at the scene, and officials have not publicly established whether his death was accidental, suicidal or connected to any other circumstance. A post-mortem examination and further investigation are expected to help establish the cause and circumstances of death.

Police have also informed Koli's family in Almora.

Investigation Underway

Authorities are now examining the circumstances surrounding Koli's death. Police officials have said that the investigation is being conducted to determine what happened inside the tea stall.

The absence of a suicide note means that investigators will have to rely on available physical evidence, statements from people who may have interacted with Koli and medical findings to establish the sequence of events.

Officials have not announced any conclusion regarding the cause of death.

Koli's death brings renewed attention to a case that has remained in the public and legal spotlight for nearly two decades. The Nithari killings triggered widespread public outrage when the remains were discovered in 2006, followed by lengthy investigations, trials, appeals and a series of judicial findings concerning the evidence.

The Supreme Court's 2025 judgment was particularly significant because it concluded that the final conviction against Koli could not be sustained when convictions in the other cases based on the same investigation and evidence had already fallen.

For now, however, the focus has shifted from the decades-old criminal proceedings to the circumstances of Koli's death in Haridwar. Police have begun investigating the incident, while his family has been informed and further findings are awaited.