Maninder Kohli found guilty of Hannah Foster’s rape, murder

Zeenews Bureau London, Nov 25: NRI Maninder Pal Singh Kohli has been found guilty of UK teen Hannah Foster’s kidnap, murder and rape by a 12-member jury in Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday. The 41-year-old former delivery driver for a sandwich firm will spend a minimum of 24 years behind bars before he could be considered for parole.
The 41-year-old former delivery driver for a sandwich firm will spend a minimum of 24 years behind bars before he could be considered for parole. 17-year old Hannah Foster disappeared from Southampton after a night out on 14th March 2003. Kohli was accused of kidnapping Hannah in his van and later raping and killing her. Her body was found dumped in brambles of Allington Lane in West End. She had earlier called the emergency number 999, hoping an operator would hear what was happening, but the call was terminated when she did not speak. Kohli has been found guilty on all the four counts – rape, kidnap, false imprisonment and murder. The jury, including four women, delivered its unanimous verdict after deliberating for five and a half hours. On November 14, Kohli portrayed himself as a victim of revenge, saying on the night Hannah went missing near Southampton, in 2003, he was bundled into a car by three men before being forced to have sex with a woman he now believes was Hannah. After the attack, Kohli fled to India where he changed his appearance, used a false name and began a new life in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he married bigamously.After reports of his fleding to India, Foster's parents personally went to India and made a public appeal for information of Kohli's whereabouts. Kohli was arrested on July 15, 2004 in West Bengal's Darjeeling district while trying to flee to Nepal. In July of 2007, Kohli was extradited to Britain for a full fledged trial. Kohli was working with a sandwich company in Southampton, where he lived with his wife and two young sons. He did not have any criminal record and had never figured in a police investigation since moving to England from India in 1994. He married a British woman of Indian origin and for nine years the family led a quiet life -- until the night of Friday, March 14, 2003, when Kohli abducted, raped and killed Foster. Kohli had initially made a full confession to Indian police, claiming he wanted to unburden himself and pay for his crimes. But within days he withdrew it and put up a protracted legal fight against his extradition.His arrival back in Britain in July last year made him the first man to be extradited from India.Hilary, 52, Trevor, 58 and their daughter Sarah, 20, were in court and broke down in tears as the verdict was read out.A post-mortem examination of Hannah's body showed that she had been strangled. Although fully dressed, her clothing had been tampered with and she had scratches on her legs.That day, Kohli was spotted with a mark under his eye, pleading with a colleague for cash for a flight to India.Kohli became the prime suspect after his supervisor saw a television appeal and noticed that the route Hannah's killer had used was the same as the one he had taught Kohli when he became a sandwich delivery driver. Kohli's DNA matched semen found at the murder scene.
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He should be hanged -K.Venugopal - Mumbai