DEHRADUN: After spending nearly 19 years in prison and escaping gallows by a few hours, Surinder Koli, 53, who was once the prime accused in the infamous Nithari case, was allegedly found hanging inside his tea kiosk in Haridwar on Friday, barely five days after starting the business. Branded the “Nithari cannibal” in a case of gruesome killings of women and children that shocked the nation, Koli was acquitted by the Supreme Court last Nov, and was now living as a “free man”.According to police, to hide his past, Koli was probably using a “different name” in Haridwar since most of the locals knew him as “Sada Ram”. After his death, police recovered his Aadhaar card which revealed his real name.On Friday morning, customers, who frequented his kiosk, found it shut. “They tried to peep inside, and found him hanging from a noose. Prima facie, it seems to be a case of suicide,” said circle officer (CO), Haridwar, Shishupal Singh Negi.The CO added that a panel of doctors will carry out the postmortem. No suicide note was found either on him or inside the kiosk, he said.For two decades, Koli, a Dalit from Mangaru Khal village in Uttarakhand’s Almora district, who worked as a domestic help at the house of Noida-based businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was a branded man.He was accused of being a “cannibal” who would allegedly lure children to Pandher’s house, murder them, and “eat their flesh”. On Dec 29, 2006, Koli and his employer Pandher were arrested.But after a long legal battle lasting two decades and 13 death sentences later, SC, on Nov 11, passed an acquittal order in the last of the 13th cases against Koli. Two days later, he walked out a free man from Greater Noida’s Kasna Jail.A few months ago, he landed in Haridwar where he had recently taken up a kiosk on a monthly rent of Rs 6,000 using his voter ID card as a validating document since it bore the name ‘Sada Ram’. Prior to that, Koli was working as a security guard in Sidcul area of the town.He had worked for around 10 days as a guard but he left that job after the employers asked for his Aadhaar card. Cops have now found both the voter ID and his Aadhaar — which bore the name ‘Surender Koli’ along with his Noida address. Police and the locals came to know his real identity from his Aadhaar.Almora-based social activist Narayan Singh Rawat, who had helped his family during the court trials, said he suspects Koli’s death to be “murder”. Rawat, who hails from Almora’s Salt area, had helped the family monetarily and facilitated Koli’s meeting with his mother in prison.“I was in regular touch with him and had recently lent him Rs 25,000 to start a tea kiosk, which he had taken on rent from a local resident linked to a political outfit. Over the phone (in the past 2-3 days), he complained of harassment. They’re asking for more money, he told me… He sounded disturbed and couldn’t figure out a solution,” Rawat told TOI.Koli is survived by his wife, daughter and a teenage son. His wife had started living at a relative’s place in Haryana, along with their children, when he was arrested in the case in 2006. Later his wife got married again. His daughter, who was in her 20s at the time of his release from jail last year, also got married a few years ago.His mother had passed away in 2022. Among the siblings, his elder brother lives in Delhi, while his younger brother lives in Almora with his family.The younger brother told TOI: “I was in regular touch with my brother over the phone. But he never shared anything that was bothering him. We’re unaware of the reason behind his suicide, as claimed by police.”How Nithari case unfoldedIn Dec 2006, the skeletal remains of some children were fished out of a drain behind Mohinder Pander’s house at Nithari in Noida, and Koli, his manservant, became a prime accused. But allegations could never be proved. In one case after another, Koli was acquitted. The court said the investigation had been “botched”, and represented a “manifest miscarriage of justice”.In 2009, Koli was sentenced to death in the first of the 13 cases against him – the alleged murder of a 14-year-old girl. Allahabad HC upheld the sentence given by the trial court. In 2011, the SC dismissed Koli’s appeal, calling him a “serial killer”.UP governor also dismissed Koli’s mercy petitions in 2013, and the President rejected them in 2014. He filed a review petition against the SC’s 2011 decision, which the court dismissed in 2014. It seemed that all doors were shut for him till Yug Chaudhary, a Mumbai-based senior advocate who specialises in death penalty litigation, stepped in with his legal team — as some also saw the case more of a “media trial”.On Sept 2, 2014, a Ghaziabad court issued Koli’s execution warrant. He was moved to Meerut jail, where he was about to be hanged. But what followed was a dramatic midnight intervention by senior advocate Indira Jaising, who was helping out Chaudhary. The court re-heard the review petition in an “open court”. And the execution of the death warrant was suspended.Notably, Koli’s co-accused, Pandher, was acquitted in all cases against him in 2023.The case against Koli, once seemingly iron-clad, crumbled too, till the 53-year-old, who was termed the “Nithari cannibal” and now living as “Sada Ram”, was found hanging under suspicious circumstances in his small kiosk on Friday.