Maninder Pal Singh Kohli

Case record: Maninder Pal Singh Kohli

Background

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli murdered Hannah Foster, a 17-year-old British student, who had been preparing to study medicine at university. Kohli fled to India shortly after Foster’s body was found and was later identified by investigators as a prime suspect in the case.

Hannah Foster’s body was found in a country lane just outside Southampton two days after she disappeared in Southampton in March 2003. A post-mortem examination revealed she had been raped and strangled.

Kohli was on the run and was eventually arrested in India after investigators failed to apprehend him. Foster’s parents made a public appeal for information of his whereabouts and visited India, holding a series of press conferences and opening a telephone “hotline” during their 10-day visit.

Hannah Foster’s family travelled to India to keep up the pressure on Indian authorities, making trips four times. Their first trip in July 2004 managed to locate Kohli after a national appeal for help across India, but a sandwich delivery driver fought his extradition for a further three years.

Hampshire police announced a reward of INR 5,000,000 to anyone whose clues led to the arrest of Kohli. The key to the arrest was information from taxi driver Jason Lepcha, hired by Kohli partly because of his understanding of English. Lepcha received a reward of INR 367,000. Lepcha used the money to establish a school in Hannah’s name, and Hannah’s parents later unwittingly hired him as their driver when visiting Darjeeling in 2006.

After returning to England, Hannah’s parents worked with others to set up a registered charity in memory of Hannah which supports Lepcha’s school.

Kohli was born in Chandigarh on November 6, 1967. He attended university in Patiala and moved to Britain in 1993 for an arranged marriage with Shalinder Kaur. Kohli had two children and his marriage was described as unhappy, with neighbours telling of rows coming from their terraced house in Southampton.

After fleeing, Kohli lived with his elderly father Jagit and brothers Ishtpreet and Amritpal. He spent 10 days believing he might not be found after leaving India. A long-distance call from Shalinder’s parents in Southampton later changed that.

While on the run, Kohli changed his name and married bigamously and adopted the role of a caring charity worker.

Kohli was questioned in custody in India about the rape of a Swiss diplomat in south Delhi in October 2003, and an e-fit was produced, but he was never charged with that matter. Kohli was also wanted on suspicion of a fake passport.

None of Kohli’s family made the trip from India to support him at trial.

The offence

Hannah Foster was abducted half a mile from her home in Hampshire on 14 March 2003 after a night out in Southampton. Kohli abducted her from a street yards from her home in Southampton after she had spent an evening with friends. Foster was murdered after she was kidnapped, raped and strangled.

Kohli dumped Foster’s body next to a road in Allington Lane, West End, and it was found in a country lane just outside Southampton two days later.

Investigation

A 999 tape captured Foster speaking to a man with an Asian accent during the night of her abduction. The 999 call was played during the later trial at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday 15 October 2008.

The male voice operator exchange included the following verbatim transcript of Foster’s final words:

Male voice: You belong this country?
Hannah Foster: Yeah England.
Male voice: England. Hannah: Yeah. I'm English. Yeah. My name.
Male voice: Huh Hannah: My name is Sarah (the court has already heard that Hannah's younger sister is called Sarah).
Male voice: Sarah. Hannah: Yeah.
Hannah: I want (there is then inaudible speech which is disputed by the prosecution and defence in the case).
Hannah: 15.
Male voice: 15. Hannah: Yeah.
Male voice: What, 15?
There is then some unclear speech which could have been
Male voice: I took this house.
Hannah: That's my, my road ... that was where I live.
Male voice: Live there.
Hannah: Yes. The male voice can then be heard speaking but too quietly to be heard properly.
Hannah: Yeah.
Male voice: There.
Unidentifiable speech sound.
Male voice: Held (unclear) your head down please.
Hannah: Sorry ... no.
Male voice: Where you live? Which number you live?
Hannah: Huh ... listen .... anything ....
During the speech the operator is asking which service Hannah wants and then the line goes to an automated message from the operator as Hannah is not directly speaking into the phone. The call is then disconnected.

During the abduction night, Foster called the emergency services hoping they would realise she was in trouble, but because she did not speak the call was eventually disconnected. Foster’s father, Trevor Foster, later called Kohli a “cold, calculating and ruthless man”.

Arrest

Kohli was arrested on 15 July 2004 in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district while trying to flee to Nepal.

During police custody in India, Kohli stated he was “tired of running”.

Trial

Kohli was charged with the murder, kidnap, and rape of Hannah Foster after landing at Heathrow following extradition from India. He was also charged with manslaughter, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice.

At Winchester Crown Court, on 10 December 2007, Kohli entered a plea of not guilty to the charges of kidnapping, rape and murder.

On 25 November 2008, Kohli was convicted on all charges at Winchester Crown Court.

Kohli’s confession and retraction

On 28 July 2004, Kohli admitted to having raped and murdered Foster in an interview to a private television channel.

In the interview, Kohli said he was forced to kill Foster after raping her because she refused to cover up his crime. In August 2004, he retracted his confessional statement saying it was “not by my own will”.

Later, a verbatim confession interview included the following quotations from Kohli:

I was totally drunk. She was crossing the road when I was coming out, she was very pretty.
I went to my car, took a U-turn and abducted her. I took her to a deserted place and raped her.
I told her I felt very, very guilty. I told her I had two children and that it was the first time. I told her I am not that type of man.
(But) she threatened to turn me in and tell her parents. Scared, for I know Asians would never be forgiven such a crime in England, I held her head from the back and I strangled her.
I was out of my mind. It was only later that I realised I had destroyed my life.

When my wife asked me why I had returned so late, I said I got into a brawl with some men in the pub. I never told my wife about the incident.

I am unburdening myself now because one day I have to face God. I want to open my heart.
I know I have done wrong, I lied when I came back to India. I was tired of running and hiding and I knew I'd be caught sooner or later.
Now I am ready to face the consequences and the law. I feel light, unburdened.

Sentencing

On 25 November 2008, Kohli, then aged 41, was found guilty of all charges at Winchester Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommended minimum term of 24 years, less two years for time already served in the UK on remand.

Under the trial judge’s recommendation, Kohli was expected to remain in prison until at least 2030 and the age of 63.

The sentencing remarks attributed the judge’s views to aggravating circumstances. The judge said:

“Hannah's vulnerability as a young slip of a girl, the terrible and appalling ordeal which Hannah must have gone through before you killed her.
The wanton way you disposed of her body and the unimaginable grief to which you have subjected her family.”

Hannah’s family expressed their disappointment in the sentence and hoped that the killer would spend the rest of his life in prison.

A victim impact statement read to the court by Hannah’s aunt Jill Lewis included the following quotations from Hannah’s mother Hilary:

“Kohli ripped out my heart and stamped on it,” she said.
“When Trevor and I saw Hannah in the mortuary, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there must be some mistake.
“The cold, battered and bruised body certainly looked like her, but where was the sparkle in her eyes?”

Mr Foster said: “I remember talking to her and saying, 'We'll find who did this to you'. And that's what we've been focused on doing since.”

Mrs Foster said: “The focus has been on her killer, not on Hannah,” and Mr Foster said: “I don't think there is such a thing as closure. "It doesn't go away, the grief and the pain, they're going to be there until the day we die.”

Det Supt Alan Betts made the following statement:

“Kohli did everything he could to avoid justice, and it was only through the determination of Hannah's parents, Hampshire Police, and colleagues in India that he was located and arrested.
“Our thoughts today are with Hannah's family. They, and we, may get some satisfaction that Kohli has been convicted, but it will not bring Hannah back.”

Alastair Nesbitt, chief crown prosecutor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said:

“It was important to bring Hannah's killer to justice.
“We did consider whether we would deploy an alleged confession but came to the conclusion we could not overcome the hurdles to make it admissible to a court in England.”

Appeals

No appeal outcome was stated in the provided material.

Outcome

Kohli was convicted of all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 24 years.

Kohli denied all the charges at trial.

Other details

Timeline of key dated events

• 14 March 2003 — Hannah Foster was abducted half a mile from her home in Hampshire in Southampton and murdered after being kidnapped, raped and strangled.
• 15 July 2004 — Kohli was arrested in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district while trying to flee to Nepal.
• 28 July 2004 — Kohli admitted to having raped and murdered Foster in an interview to a private television channel.
• 15 October 2008 — The 999 tape was played during the later trial at Winchester Crown Court.
• 10 December 2007 — Kohli entered a plea of not guilty to the charges of kidnapping, rape and murder at Winchester Crown Court.
• 8 June 2007 — A final decision to extradite Kohli to the U.K. was handed down.
• 28 July 2007 — Kohli arrived in the U.K. after being extradited.
• 25 November 2008 — Kohli was convicted on all charges at Winchester Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 24 years.

Additional details from the provided material

Kohli abducted Foster when she was crossing the road after he was coming out from a pub, and he took a U-turn and abducted her.

A televised confession had been broadcast on New Delhi TV, and Kohli retracted it within days and fought a long extradition process through the courts. A Punjab inspector named Sumedh Singh Saini was present during the confession in Chandigarh.

Kohli fled to India four days after dumping Foster’s body in brambles near Southampton in March 2003. Kohli caught an early morning coach to London’s Heathrow airport and flew to Delhi on March 18. His younger brother Ishtpreet, an Indian police constable, drove him to the family home in Mohali, near Chandigarh, 150 miles north of Delhi.

Kohli became Dr Mike Dennis, a Red Cross worker who specialised in administering hepatitis vaccinations at a camp near Kalimpong in Darjeeling. The camp was run by a man called Oath Das. Kohli focused his attentions on the employer’s daughter, Bharati. After a whirlwind romance of just four months, Kohli and Bharati married illegally for a second time without the knowledge of his. Bharati was described as a music teacher.

Kohli later took his new wife but refused to tell her what was wrong and fled yet again, trying to cross the border into Nepal. They travelled to the town of Siliguri before moving to neighbouring Panighatta, where Kohli was arrested on July 14, 2004, 17 months to the day after Hannah was abducted.

While in police custody, Kohli took the unusual step of appearing on national television to confess his crime.

Kohli’s younger brother Ishtpreet was named as an Indian police constable.

Kohli was reported to have been questioned about the rape of a Swiss diplomat in south Delhi in October 2003 by investigators, including production of an e-fit.

Kohli was expected to remain in prison until at least 2030 and the age of 63.

Victim

Hannah Foster was born on 31 August 1985 and died on 14 March 2003. She was murdered after being kidnapped and raped, and she was strangled. Her body was found in West End two days after she disappeared in Southampton.