Overview
- Police found Koli hanging inside a rented tea stall in Haridwar on Friday, September 18, 2026, and sent the body for a post‑mortem while treating the death as an apparent suicide.
- Officers said the deceased was identified at the scene using his Aadhaar card, relatives in Almora were notified, and no suicide note has been recovered so far.
- Haridwar police have taken the body into custody, completed an initial panchanama of the scene, and launched a criminal inquiry to determine whether the death was self‑inflicted or requires further forensic investigation.
- Koli had been released after the Supreme Court overturned his last Nithari conviction in November 2025, and he had been living and working in Haridwar, a fact reporters and neighbours say exposed him to social and economic vulnerabilities.
- The case returns attention to long‑running criticisms of the Nithari probe, with courts having previously rejected key prosecution evidence such as confessions and alleged recoveries for legal unreliability, and investigators and judges will now watch forensic and inquiry findings for clarity on both Koli’s death and unresolved questions about the original investigations.