Kolkata, Sep 18: Surendra Koli, who was accused in the 2006 Nithari killings case, was found dead after allegedly hanging himself at a tea stall in Haridwar on Friday, with police launching an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. His body was found inside the stall in the Bhupatwala area of north Haridwar.
The incident occurred opposite Lalmata Temple on Sapt Sarovar Road, according to police. Koli had reportedly been operating a tea stall in the area for the past few days. Police from the Saptarishi outpost reached the spot after receiving information, took possession of the body and began investigating the incident. Current reports also state that police were treating the death as an apparent suicide.
Police identified the deceased as Koli, a resident of Mangrukhal village in the Bhikiasain area of Almora district. His family members were informed, while investigators continued to examine the circumstances of the death.
Koli’s death comes after the Supreme Court ended his final criminal case linked to the Nithari killings. In November 2025, the court allowed his curative petition and set aside his conviction in the case, holding that the evidentiary foundation used to sustain it could not stand alongside the court’s findings in companion prosecutions.
The Nithari case had come to public attention in 2006 after the disappearance of children from Nithari was followed by the discovery of human remains in a drain outside the home of businessman Mohinder Singh Pandher in Noida Sector 31. The property subsequently became widely known as the “House of Horrors”.
The investigation involved allegations concerning the abduction of children and young women, along with charges and claims involving rape, cannibalism and organ theft. The prosecution eventually resulted in 19 cases against Koli and Pandher, who were initially convicted in the proceedings.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed closure reports in three cases citing insufficient evidence. Koli was acquitted in three of the remaining 16 cases, while his death sentence in another case was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court’s November 2025 ruling brought the final pending case against him to an end.
The Nithari investigations and subsequent trials had remained among the most closely watched criminal proceedings arising from the disappearance of children and young women in the Noida locality. The Supreme Court’s final ruling on Koli’s case had also addressed inconsistencies in the evidentiary basis used across the prosecutions.
