In his 8x8 cell in Meerut jail, Nithari serial killer and death row inmate, 42-year-old Surender Koli, lives a world apart from other inmates. He is in solitary confinement, and has shown some odd behaviour, say jail wardens though jail superintendent SHM Rizvi says Koli is "normal".
Koli was moved to Meerut Jail from Ghaziabad's Dasna Jail a week ago. Wardens say when he is not praying, he is sleeping. So far he has not asked for anything except for expressing a desire to meet his mother and his two children, the youngest of whom was born after his arrest and incarceration in Dasna Jail.
Koli avoids contact with even jail staff. Two armed guards have been posted outside his cell, which has a toilet, but he has not once engaged them in talk. He has a healthy appetite. Prisoners in Meerut Jail get only vegetarian fare and Koli polishes off seven to eight rotis per sitting, says a warden.
Also, Koli never complains. He sleeps for an undisturbed eight hours daily. What is disturbing is his silence, and indifference. When being moved from Dasna Jail, where he spent eight years, Koli was shouting his innocence all the way to Meerut Jail, cursing the gods, and every human being responsible for his plight.
"Once in his cell here, he turned completely docile, and silent," says the warden. "No tantrums, no displays of anger or frustration. We have provided the cell with All Out mosquito repellent. We don't want him to be taken ill with dengue."
Strange, though it may sound, the warden says Koli is unaware that he is currently in Meerut Jail. But Rizvi says Koli was informed he will be executed. Rizvi says Koli is on 24/7 surveillance, with CCTV cameras tracking his every move, awake or asleep. "He has to be secured at all costs," he says.
A special rope to hang him was brought from Naini Jail, along with a steel hook that will hold the rope to the gallows' beam. Pavan Jallad, the only authorised hangman in north India, says Koli can be hanged whenever the court orders his execution. For now, there is a Supreme Court stay. And Koli is the talk of Meerut Jail, though he himself hardly speaks to anyone.
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