Overview
- Koli was found hanging inside a rented tea stall opposite Lalmata Temple in Haridwar on Friday and was identified at the scene using his Aadhaar card.
- Local police took the body into custody, completed a panchanama, sent it for post-mortem, informed his family, and say the death appears to be suicide pending medical and forensic results.
- The Supreme Court had acquitted Koli in November 2025 after judges said prosecutorial evidence such as his confession and alleged recoveries had serious reliability and chain of custody problems.
- Reports say Koli had been living in Haridwar for months and running the tea stall for days, with neighbours and a man who helped him get the job saying he showed signs of depression; no suicide note has been recovered so far.
- The death renews questions about who is accountable for investigative failures in the 2006 Nithari cases, leaves unanswered issues for victims’ families, and is likely to prompt fresh scrutiny of the original CBI and police probes.