Maninder Pal Singh Kohli was sentenced to life imprisonment after found guilty for  committing rape and murder of a 17-year-old student Hannah Foster in 2003 on November 25th 2008 Tuesday.

Maninder was first a van driver who used to deliver sandwiches around in Hampshire. He is 41 and a father of 2. He fled from Britain after Foster’s murder on March 14, 2003, in the city of Southampton.

Hannah had spent the day with her parents and was kidnapped when she was returning to her home in the evening. The secondary school student called emergency services, hoping an operator would hear what was happening, but the call was terminated when she did not speak. She was then raped and strangled by Maninder pal. Her body was found two days later, lying in a ditch by the side of a road, a short walking distance from her home.

Two days after the body was found, Kohli panicked, borrowed some money from his father-in-law and caught a flight for India, heading for Chandigarh. Once back to Chandigarh, he cleanly shaved his beard and head (he used to wear turban then) and changed his name to Mike Davies and eventually created a new life for himself in hills of Kalimpong near Darjeeling, West Bengal.

Later in Britain, his semen was recovered from Hannah’s body and a nationwide television appeal alerted a colleague (James Dennis), who rang police. Next year, Hannah’s parents Hillary and Trevor Foster, along with Hampshire police, visited India and led a media campaign, announcing a 70,000 pounds award. Within days, Kohli was spotted out. He was extradited to Britain in July 2007.

Kohli confessed his crimes in India, but during the six-week trial in Britain, he portrayed himself as the victim rather than the perpetrator of crime, claiming he had been kidnapped, blindfolded and forced to have sex with a woman whom he later recognized to be Hannah. He said the plot was carried out by his colleague James Dennis – the same man who had alerted the police about him in 2003 – to whom Kohli owed 16,000 pounds and with whose wife Kohli claimed to have had a secret affair.

When Dennis demanded the money back, Kohli said he threatened to publicize the alleged affair, which prompted the act of revenge. But both Dennis and his wife denied the affair during the prosecution.

Finally the jury at Winchester Crown Court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum of 24 years behind the bars. The parents of the 17-year-old girl demanded complete life time imprisonment of Kohli instead of acquitting him after 24 years.

email