Surendra Koli, who was acquitted in the 2006 Nithari serial case in 2025, was found dead at his tea stall in Haridwar on Friday, police said. Koli had moved to the Uttarakhand city for the past few months.

Koli, who was tried for over a dozen cases of rape and murder of several women and children, walked out of Kasna jail in Greater Noida in November last year after the Supreme Court set aside his conviction in a case of rape and murder of a teenage girl. He was behind bars for 19 years in Nithari serial killings case.

The rape-murder case was the last of many cases that arose out of the Nithari murders. His former employer Moninder Singh Pandher, at whose house the skeletons were found, was acquitted in 2023.

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Here is a brief timeline of the Nithari serial killing case:

December 2006: The murders came to light in 2006 when human remains were found in a drain near a house in Noida’s Nithari. The allegations came in the wake of allegations dating between 2005 and 2006, when several women and children were reported missing in Nithari village in Noida’s Sector 31. The skeletal remains were discovered in a drain and on an open strip of land behind a house owned by Moninder Singh Pandher, where Koli worked as domestic help. Pandher and Koli were accused of abducting and raping children and women from nearby villages of Nithari, committing acts of cannibalism, and disposing of their bodies in a drain in the locality.

Arrest in 2006: Moninder Singh Pandher and his aide, Koli, were were arrested on December 29, 2006 after police recovered skeletons and other belongings of some missing girls from the drain. Koli was accused of killing several girls, chopping their bodies to pieces before throwing them in the backyard outside their house.

Investigation begins (2006-2009): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams visited the Nithari house and interrogated the accused. A total of 19 FIRS were filed against the duo for crimes against 19 different girls. The CBI filed chargesheets in 16 of them.

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February 13, 2009: Koli and Pandher were convicted and sentenced to death by a special CBI court for the rape and murder of a 14-yr-old, one of many victims of the case.

2011-2014: The case was brought before the Allahabad High Court, where Koli’s death sentence was affirmed while Pandher was acquitted.

Appeal before Supreme Court: Surendra Koli filed an appeal before the Supreme Court, however, the apex court dismissed it in 2011. The court also dismissed a review petition filed by Koli in 2014.

2015 January: In 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted Koli’s death sentence to life imprisonment citing “inordinate delay in the disposal of the mercy petition.”

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Death sentence in another case: In 2017, a special CBI court in Ghaziabad awarded death sentence to the duo in connection with the case of rape and murder of a 25-year-old help. The victim had went missing in 2006 and she was identified through human remains in Pandher’s house.

Acquittal in other cases: In 2023, the special court acquitted Pandher in two cases and Koli in 12 cases. However, Koli remained in jail due to conviction in one case. In the same year, the Allahabad High Court acquitted the duo for lack of evidence and Moninder Singh Pandher walked out free.

Koli walks out of jail in 2025: In November 2025, Surendra Koli walked out of jail nearly two decades after his arrest after the Supreme Court acquitted him in the rape and murder case of a teenage girl. The acquittal was the final one in a series of case that arose out of the Nithari murders.