Ending a process that began three years ago, a court today ordered the extradition of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli to the UK to face trial there in the 2003 Hannah Claire Foster rape and murder case.Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau said there was “sufficient prima facie evidence against the accused to justify his extradition” but specified that, if convicted, Kohli should not be sentenced to death.In 2004, the teenaged victim’s parents, Trevor and Hillary, had visited India, where Kohli was believed to be in hiding, to appeal for help in locating him and announced an award. Hannah Claire Foster, 17, was raped and strangled in March 2003 in Southampton. At that time, Kohli, who worked as a sandwich-delivery driver, was living there with his wife and two children. He had fled to India after her body was found and stayed with relatives in Punjab for some time. Five days after the Fosters’ appeal in Chandigarh and Delhi, Kohli was arrested on July 14, 2004, in Kalimpong, where he was living under an assumed name. He had married a local woman.The court observed that his fleeing Britain on the pretext of visiting his ailing mother and his efforts to evade arrest made it a fit case to extradite him. It took note that Hannah’s blood was found in the delivery van he used to drive, and observed that Kohli’s living in different places in India under assumed names and marriage in Kalimpong indicated “his prima facie involvement” in the crime. Asked to make a submission, Kohli said, “I will not go. My life is in my hands and you cannot take me there alive.” He said he was afraid he’d be a victim of racial discrimination there.His counsel Charanjeet Singh Bakshi said, “Racism is part of life there, especially in the jails and judiciary, there’s no escaping it. Discrimination might be subtle, but is very much present.”
