Most wanted became most popular

Until his arrest on Thursday for the rape and murder of 17-year-old Hannah Foster, Kohli was the newcomer-in-the-hills, Mike Dennis aka Roshan Mehta. A familiar face, they all knew him as the ‘‘handsome’’ man in flashy gear at parties, the NRI who gave up a life in UK to marry a ‘‘pious’’ Kalimpong woman, the man behind the local Hepatitis B vaccine campaign.

But hard as he tried, Kohli couldn’t come up with a blank slate. Ask Jason Lepcha, a Darjeeling tour operator who was Kohli’s friend. It’s clear why the man the police arrested two days ago was given to ‘‘brooding.’’

‘‘He used to say he loves this place but that he would live a short life. That his stay in the hills won’t be for long,’’ says Lepcha.

The Sunday Express interviewed several residents, including friends and acquaintances, to piece together Kohli’s attempt at a new life on the run.

In February this year, after bolting from Mohali, Kohli checked into Darjeeling’s Red Rose Hotel. He stayed there for 47 days. Just a month ago, he married Bharati Dass, well-known in Kalimpong for her bhajan recitals.

From a devout Hindu family, she was supposed to be an ideal bride for the handsome man. ‘‘They were a lively, outgoing couple. He could have been any girl’s heart-throb. So many here fell for him. He told us he had a girlfriend abroad. He would phone her at times, calling her Mikey,’’

Bharati has not been heard or seen ever since her husband’s arrest. Friends have spirited her away from the media although the police have spoken to her.

In Kalimpong, when he needed to impress people, Kohli would introduce himself as Mike Dennis, ‘‘just returned from the UK.’’ He told the honourary secretary of the local Red Cross Society that he had worked as a ‘‘UN volunteer’’ in London.

If it was Dennis in Kalimpong, it became Roshan Mehta in Darjeeling. ‘‘It’s not easy to get so close to a community within four months, even tie the marital knot, especially when you don’t belong here,’’ says a photo studio owner to whom Kohli had come for prints of his wedding pictures.

What they all remember is his sudden interest in a local Hepatitis B vaccine campaign. ‘‘It was an occupation he had taken up seriously,’’ says an acquaintance. Kohli began by attending a few such vaccination camps in Darjeeling where he met Benode Kumar, a vaccine supplier. Together, they decided to take the campaign to Kalimpong.

Camps, counselling sessions made him popular: for every Hepatitis B shot, he would charge Rs 50. A local contractor, who knew him, said: ‘‘Mike Dennis was getting to be known as the Doctor.’’ What they didn’t know of him was Hannah Foster.