Nithari case convict Surendra Koli found dead in Haridwar (2026-09-18)

Surendra Koli, the man once convicted and later acquitted in the Nithari serial killings case, was found dead on Friday morning in Haridwar. His body was discovered hanging from the ceiling of a tea stall, and local police have confirmed his identity while declining to comment further.

Reports indicate that Koli had moved to Haridwar a few months ago. His family is from Almora, about 300 km away. The reasons for his relocation remain unclear, though it is possible he was trying to leave behind the memories and notoriety of the case.

The Nithari killings

Between 2005 and 2006, 19 girls and young women went missing from Nithari, an urban village in Noida. Families of the missing sought help but were repeatedly turned away, with police apparently unwilling or unable to act.

The disappearances came to wider attention after Payal Sarkar went missing in May 2006. In December that year, dismembered and decomposed remains, some reduced to skeletons, were recovered from drains behind a bungalow in Sector 31.

Moninder Singh Pandher owned the house, D-5, Sector 31. Koli was his domestic help. Police pulled skulls, bone fragments, torn clothing and children's toys from the overgrown drains behind and between the house and its neighbour. A torn school bag was also found.

Pandher and Koli were accused of raping and killing 19 girls and dismembering the bodies. A dhobi, Jhabbu Lal, whose 10-year-old daughter Jyoti was among the victims, recalled that Koli once gave him one of Pandher's shirts to iron; it was blood-stained, and Koli said it was from the 'sahab' slaughtering a chicken.

By Christmas 2007, both men had been arrested, and Koli confessed. He identified 10 of the girls from photographs shown to him by police.

Investigation and fallout

Residents, angry that police had delayed action while more girls were killed, clashed with officers. Six policemen were dismissed amid allegations that some had colluded with Pandher. Two years later, Sub-Inspector Simarjeet Kaur, then in charge of the village police outpost, was reinstated; she had served jail time for allegedly accepting a bribe.

Rumours of human trafficking, organ harvesting and even cannibalism circulated. A doctor living near Pandher was suspected in an unrelated illegal kidney transplant racket, and Pandher's maid Maya was questioned. Much was alleged but little proven. A possible link to old kidnapping cases in Chandigarh, Pandher's hometown, was examined and dropped.

The breakthrough came from Payal's mobile phone, which was traced to a handcart puller who said it belonged to someone at the Pandher residence. Pandher was summoned, then Koli was picked up. Koli led police to the drain behind D-5, where they expected to find Payal but recovered 18 other sets of remains as well. He said he had abducted, raped and killed the girls and dismembered the bodies in his quarters.

The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the case in early January, and more skeletal remains, including a skull, a torso and part of a leg, were found.

Convictions and acquittals

In February 2009, Pandher and Koli were convicted of murdering 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar and sentenced to death. Koli was later found guilty in the killings of seven-year-old Arti Prasad in May 2010 and nine-year-old Rachna Lal in September 2010. By the December 2012 verdict in the murder of five-year-old Kavita, he had been sentenced to death five times.

The Supreme Court upheld the sentence in February 2011. In July that year, the President rejected a mercy plea, and a death warrant was issued in September. Koli was to be hanged on September 12, 2014.

The case later unravelled amid questions over flawed investigation protocols and poor record-keeping. A knife and an axe recovered from the Nithari house were discarded. In October 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in all 12 cases against him and Pandher in the two he faced. The state's appeals were dismissed by the Supreme Court in July 2025, making the acquittals final; the top court described the earlier verdict as a manifest miscarriage of justice. By then, Koli had spent 19 years in custody.