Year After Getting Acquitted in 2006 Nithari Murders, Surinder Koli Dies by Suicide in Haridwar

SURINDER KOLI, one of the key accused who was acquitted in the 2006 Nithari serial murder case, was found dead at his tea stall in Haridwar. On Friday, September 18, 2026, the Sapt Rishi police outpost (Kotwali) received information about a man who had hanged himself in a tea stall opposite the Lalmata Temple on Sapt Sarovar Road. After the officers arrived on the scene, the man was identified as Surinder Koli. 

According to reports, after being acquitted by the Supreme Court in November 2025, Koli was working as a tea vendor in Haridwar while renting his stall. The initial investigation revealed that he was living in the city for a few months. No suicide note was found at the site, and his family in Almora has been informed, the police said.

What was the Nithari Killing case?

The series of murders came to light when two residents of Nithari village pointed authorities to a spot where they believed the remains of missing children had been seen. These children had gone missing before December 2006.

The location was a municipal water tank behind a house owned by Moninder Singh Pandher of Uttarakhand — a house that later came to be known as the “house of horrors.” Suspicion soon fell on Surinder Koli, Pandher’s domestic help at D5, Sector 31, Greater Noida.

Many villagers believed Koli was involved in the disappearance of the children. One day, the then Resident Welfare Association (RWA) president, S.C. Mishra, accompanied the two residents whose children had also gone missing. Their search took a horrifying turn when they found a decomposed hand at the site.

What followed shocked the entire nation. Investigators unearthed bones, skulls, children’s clothes, and slippers from the drain behind Pandher’s bungalow. Koli and Pandher were arrested immediately after the discovery. The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which ultimately filed 16 cases in connection with the Nithari killings.

The apex court’s controversial decision came after Koli filed a curative petition—his final legal recourse to challenge his conviction. With Koli’s acquittal, the chapter of the Nithari murders has come to an end. His co-accused, Moninder Singh Pandher, had already been acquitted of all charges in 2023. 

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