Court extends Kohli's judicial custody

A Delhi court on Friday extended till September 24 the judicial custody of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, accused in the murder of British teenager Hannah Foster.

Kohli was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate S K Sharma, as the additional chief metropolitan magistrate "enquiring" into the demand for his extradition to the UK was on leave.

Kohli was brought to Delhi on September 10 from Chandigarh, where he had been lodged after his arrest on July 15 from Kalimpong in Darjeeling in connection with the 17-year-old Foster's murder.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravinder Dudeja had on September 10 remanded the accused to judicial custody pending the extradition proceedings and fixed September 17 for hearing the Centre's evidence against him.

Foster went missing on March 14, 2003 from Southampton, England, and her body was found after two days.

Investigations led police to Kohli, who fled England within two days of the body's discovery. He was traced to his family home in Punjab but before he could be arrested he escaped from there too.

He was finally held in Kalimpong, where he had settled after marrying a Nepalese woman.

Chandigarh-born Kohli, a graduate from the Patiala University, had migrated to England in 1993 and settled down after marrying a British girl. He was working there as a driver with a courier company.