Surinder Koli, who was once labelled the “Monster of Nithari”, and was acquitted in the sensational 2006 killings case, has died by suicide.
Preliminary investigations revealed that he had been living in Haridwar for a few months and was running a rented tea stall. Koli was found dead under suspicious circumstances in Haridwar. His body was found hanging from a rope inside the tea stall. The police have informed his family in Almora and have initiated an investigation. The Sapt Rishi police outpost (under the City Kotwali) received information that a man had hanged himself in a tea stall located opposite the Lalmata Temple on Sapt Sarovar Road. Police arrived at the scene and identified him as Surinder Koli, who was an accused in the infamous Nithari killings case. Locals had long complained of missing children, mostly from poor labour families, in the nearby Nithari village, but their concerns were allegedly brushed aside by the police. The house belonged to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and Koli worked there as domestic help. Rumours spread quickly that children had been lured, killed, dismembered, and even cooked. Soon after, Pandher and Koli were arrested.
It was only after the disappearance of a young woman named Payal that the police traced her mobile phone to a local rickshaw puller, who claimed to have received it from someone at D-5.
No suicide note was found at the shop, and the matter is being investigated, police said.
After being acquitted by the Supreme Court last year, Koli had been working as a tea vendor in Haridwar for some time.
