For nearly two decades, Surinder Koli was considered one of India's most notorious serial killers.
He was sentenced to death 13 times in the Nithari murder case. But in November last year, the Supreme Court acquitted him. After this he was released after spending 19 years in jail.
Last Friday, 50-year-old Surinder Koli was found dead in his small tea shop in Uttarakhand.
Haridwar City Police officer Shishupal Singh had told BBC News Hindi, "The body of a person has been found in Saptarishi area. According to the information received, the deceased is Surinder Koli."
He said, "Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide. The forensic team has investigated the spot."
Haridwar SP City Deepak Singh said, "Look, I have not received the official post-mortem report of Surinder Koli, but from the information that has come to light, the cause of death is suicide."
Surinder Koli's death remains a tragic chapter in a long legal battle that exposed deep flaws in the criminal justice system.
The story revolves around dubious evidence, allegations of police torture, the Supreme Court admitting its mistake and a nearly two-decade-long struggle for justice.
This case started in December 2006. Then the police found skeletal remains of 19 people in a drain behind a bungalow in Noida. Most of them were children.
This house belonged to industrialist Moninder Singh Pandher.
Surinder Koli was a Dalit migrant who left school before completing secondary education. He used to work as a domestic help at Pandher's house.
After this both were arrested.
TV channels, which were continuously covering the sensational crime, soon declared Koli guilty.
The prosecution's case against Koli rested mainly on two grounds.
First- His detailed confessional statement given before the magistrate. Second- recovery of remains like skeletons.
Police claimed that this recovery was done only on the behest of Koli.
In a confessional statement leaked to the media, Koli had said that "he used to call girls, women and children to the bungalow by luring them with work or sweets. After coming inside, he used to strangle them."
"After this, he would cut their bodies into pieces with a knife or axe. He also said that he would cook some parts of their bodies and eat them and throw the rest in the drain outside the bungalow."
In 2009, a trial court had sentenced Koli to death in the murder case of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar.
Allahabad High Court also upheld this punishment. In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected Koli's appeal.
The Supreme Court had described him as a "serial killer" and called the house a "virtual slaughterhouse".
The court had considered that this case falls in the "rarest of rare" category. Death penalty can be given in such category of cases.
Because the Supreme Court had previously accepted Koli's confession and the evidence against him as valid, lower courts were bound to follow that legal precedent.
Between 2010 and 2021, the trial court repeatedly cited the 2011 Supreme Court decision. On the basis of this, Koli was sentenced to death in 12 more cases.
The courts said that when the Supreme Court has already accepted that Koli's confession was given legally and voluntarily, then there is no question of coming to a different conclusion.
After the mercy petitions were rejected, a trial court issued a death warrant for him in September 2014.
Surinder Koli was sent to a jail where there was a provision for hanging. Arrangements for the executioner had also been made.
But on September 8, 2014, just four hours before he was to be hanged, the Supreme Court stayed his execution in a late night hearing.
This hearing took place after the intervention of senior lawyer Indira Jaising.
The ban was imposed because a new legal principle had recently been decided. According to this, it was necessary to hear review petitions in cases related to death penalty in open court.
Koli's review petition was heard in-camera and was dismissed.
Later the Supreme Court also rejected that special review petition.
But there was an important turning point in this matter in January 2015.
Allahabad High Court commuted Koli's death sentence to life imprisonment in the Rimpa Haldar murder case.
The judges said that there was an unusual and unreasonable delay of more than two and a half years by the government in deciding on his mercy petition.
The court also found that Koli had been kept in solitary confinement unconstitutionally since his conviction in 2009.
According to Indian law, a person cannot be kept in solitary confinement for more than 14 consecutive days. Overall this period cannot exceed three months.
The court said that hanging him under such circumstances would be an unconstitutional violation of his right to life.
This order saved Koli's life.
However, there were still 12 other death penalty orders against him.
However, in October 2023, the prosecution's case started falling apart.
Hearing appeals against the sentences awarded in 12 other cases, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court examined the entire prosecution case in detail.
After this the court acquitted Koli in all those cases.
The High Court found that the two main grounds on which the prosecution rested had serious shortcomings.
First, the court said that Koli's confessional statement was recorded when he was in police custody for 60 consecutive days.
This period was much more than the legal limit of 15 days. The court also found that he did not get effective legal aid during this period.
According to court documents, Koli alleged that he was subjected to severe torture on several occasions.
He claimed that the police gave him electric shocks. She alleged that her nails were pulled out with pliers.
He also said that petrol was injected into his anus and he was hung upside down.
Koli said that the police officers had forced him to memorize names and details of the incidents.
He also alleged that his family was threatened with being handed over to the mob if he disobeyed the order.
The High Court accepted that this confessional statement was not given voluntarily. The court did not consider it legally acceptable.
Second, the court also raised questions on the evidence related to the recovery of the dead bodies.
The court found that the drain from which human remains were found was an open and public place.
The excavation had already started before Koli was brought there. Several months before his arrest, human remains were found in that area.
The judges also pointed out a significant lapse by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
A 2007 report by a committee of the Ministry of Women and Child Development said that the torsos of the victims were missing.
The report also said that the bodies were cut with "surgical precision".
The report feared that "the cannibalism story could be a ploy to divert attention."
According to the report, this may have been used to divert attention from an organized organ trafficking gang.
A doctor lived in the house right next to the place where human remains were found. That doctor's name had earlier also surfaced in a kidney theft scam.
But the CBI neither interrogated the doctor nor investigated the possible aspect related to organ trafficking.
The High Court had described this investigation as 'messed up' and 'carried out negligently'.
CBI had challenged the decisions of Koli's acquittal. But in July 2024, the Supreme Court rejected his appeals.
This created a legal contradiction.
Koli was acquitted in 12 cases because the court considered the evidence unreliable and fabricated. But he remained guilty in the first case on the basis of similar evidence.
To resolve this situation, the Supreme Court heard a curative petition.
This is a rare legal remedy used to correct serious miscarriages of justice.
In November 2025, the court applied the arguments of acquittal in 12 cases to the original case as well.
The Supreme Court overturned its 2011 decision and ordered Koli's immediate release.
The court said that negligence and delay harmed the process of proper investigation of facts. At the same time, those possibilities were also closed which could have led to the identification of the real culprit.
But Koli died just ten months after his release from jail.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, who intervened at midnight in 2014 to stop Koli's execution, says his tragic end highlights a major flaw in the Indian legal system.
"Even after being acquitted, he could not reintegrate into normal society," he said.
He said, "He had no source of income. He had no friend circle and no community he could call his own."
Yug Mohit Chaudhary, a lawyer who represented Koli for a decade, said the case highlights the insensitive system that allowed this tragedy to happen.
Chaudhary said, "Koli's case clearly shows us how callous and insensitive we have become towards the unimaginable suffering inflicted on the poor and marginalized people of the society."
He said, "As long as such incidents continue to happen, our great achievements will have no meaning."
He said, "If our people continue to suffer like this, then what difference does it make whether we have reached the moon or the names of our rich people are included in the list of the world's richest people?"
For Koli, the label of "cannibal" proved to be one from which he could never get rid of.
At the same time, for the families of the 19 victims, the fallout of the case means that the real culprits are still unknown.
Indira Jaising said, "The biggest unanswered question is who will hold the police accountable for not conducting a proper investigation?"
"No one has received a just conclusion in this case," he said.
