Nithari Killings: Surendra Koli, an accused in the 2006 high-profile Nithari serial murder case has died by suicide on Friday. The incident took place in the Bhupatwala area of North Haridwar in Uttarakhand. The incident comes less than a year after Koli was completely acquitted of all charges by the Supreme Court of India and released from jail in November 2025. 

Found Hanging In Tea Stall

According to a report by Jagran.com, his body was found hanging from a rope inside a tea stall. Koli had been working as a tea seller in Haridwar for the past few days. The police have informed his relatives in Almora and have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death, examining all possible angles.

The incident came to light after the Sapt Rishi police outpost received information that a man had hanged himself inside a tea stall located opposite the Lalmata Temple on Sapt Sarovar Road. Police rushed to the scene and identified the deceased as Surendra Koli, a resident of Mangrukhal village in the Bhikiyasain area of Almora.

Acquitted In 2025

Earlier in November 2025, the Supreme Court had allowed a curative petition filed by Koli challenging his conviction and death sentence in one of the Nithari murder cases and fully acquitted him. The order was passed by a bench comprising former Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Surya Kant (now CJI) and Vikram Nath, which had heard Koli's petition in the open court.

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Koli was convicted of the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Noida's Nithari village, a conviction that was upheld by the Supreme Court in February 2011. Although his review plea was dismissed in 2014, the Allahabad High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment in January 2015, citing an inordinate delay in the decision on his mercy petition.

In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli and co-accused Pandher in several other Nithari cases, overturning the death sentences awarded by the trial court in 2017. The CBI and the victims' families later challenged these acquittals before the SC, but the top court dismissed all 14 appeals on July 30 this year.

The Nithari killings had come to light with the discovery of skeletal remains of eight children from a drain behind businessman Moninder Singh Pandher's house at Nithari in Noida on December 29, 2006.

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