Nithari killings came to public notice in the year 2006 when human bodies were discovered in a drain near a residence in sector 31 of Noida.
Several females and children had been missing from Nithari for many months prior to the occurrence of such an incident. Their fears had been expressed and yet, their disappearance had not led to further investigation in the matter.
Eight skeletons were unearthed by the police in the drain on 29th December 2006. Suspected of these murders, Surendra Koli, a domestic help and his employer Moninder Singh Pandher were arrested.
Further pieces of evidence in the form of clothes and other possessions of the victims were discovered later, leading to national uproar. In total, 19 cases were registered against the two in the year 2007.
The case of 15-year-old Rimpa Haldar led to Koli’s conviction of rape and murder, which later came to be confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011. The Supreme Court rejected his review petition in 2014.
In January 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted his sentence from death penalty to imprisonment for life on account of an excessive delay in disposal of his mercy petition.
By then, the closure reports had already been made in three cases out of the total 19 cases. Of the other 16 cases, Koli had been acquitted in three, with death sentence in one being reduced to life imprisonment.
The turning point in the case came in October 2023 when the Allahabad High Court acquitted both Koli and Pandher in some of the pending cases, overturning the death sentence pronounced on the duo by a lower court in 2017.
Koli was acquitted in 12 cases while Pandher was acquitted in two cases where the court found that there were insufficient grounds to prove the cases beyond reasonable doubt.
Only one case remained, in which Koli had to face a life term sentence for murdering Rimpa Haldar.
On July 30, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the decision by the Allahabad High Court in all other cases by saying, "There is no perversity in the Allahabad High Court decision."
The reason cited was that the conviction of Koli in the case had been made mostly because of the confession and recovery of a kitchen knife from him, creating doubt regarding the adequacy of evidence against him.
Then Koli filed a curative petition contesting his conviction in the last case, and the Supreme Court acquitted him in the last case in November 2025.
Koli emerged from Luksar Jail in Greater Noida at around 7 PM wearing a mask and carrying a small bag nineteen years after his arrest.
The jail authorities stated that he was smiling while coming out. He had been transferred from Ghaziabad jail to Luksar jail prior to his release.
Pandher, the primary accused, had long been acquitted of all the charges against him and had come out of the same jail.
After the final acquittal, Koli moved to Haridwar and started working at a tea stall in an attempt to live a normal life after being incarcerated for almost 20 years.
Koli was discovered hanging himself at the tea stall he owned on September 18, 2026, which is a few months after his acquittal. Koli was 50 years old.
There was no suicide note found by the police.
The families of the victims felt a lot of anger with regards to the acquittals.
It was mentioned by one member of the victim’s family that skeletons were found from the drains and also that some of the girls from the village were missing but still there was no conviction.
