Bio

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli was born on November 6, 1967, in Chandigarh, India, and grew up in Patiala with his two brothers. He studied in India before moving to the United Kingdom in 1993 for an arranged marriage to Shalinder Kaur. The couple settled in Southampton and had two sons.

Before the murder, Kohli lived a seemingly ordinary life and worked routine jobs, including bakery work and later sandwich delivery for Hazelwood Foods. Behind that public image, reports described financial problems, gambling debts, and domestic disputes. His work van later became important evidence in the investigation into Hannah Foster’s abduction and murder.

After killing Hannah Foster in March 2003, Kohli abandoned his family and fled to India. He changed his appearance, used the alias “Dr Mike Dennis,” and presented himself as a charity worker while hiding in the Darjeeling area. He stayed on the run for about 16 months until he was arrested in West Bengal in July 2004 while trying to flee toward Nepal.

Murder Story

On the night of March 14, 2003, 17-year-old Hannah Foster went out with friends in Southampton. She was an A-level student who lived with her parents and younger sister. After leaving her friends, she began walking home alone from the Portswood area. She was only a short distance from her home when Maninder Pal Singh Kohli abducted her.

Kohli was driving a work van that night. Investigators later established that Hannah was taken into the vehicle and driven away. During the abduction, Hannah secretly made a 999 emergency call. She did not speak directly to the operator, but the recording captured parts of a conversation between her and a man. Investigators later used the call as part of the case.

Hannah was raped and strangled. Her body was found two days later, on March 16, 2003, in bushes beside Allington Lane in West End, near Southampton. A post-mortem examination determined that she had been sexually assaulted and killed by strangulation.

The police investigation soon identified Kohli as a suspect. Detectives traced evidence connected to his work van, and forensic testing linked him to the crime. By the time investigators focused on him, Kohli had already left the United Kingdom. On March 18, 2003, four days after the murder, he flew from Heathrow Airport to India.

Once in India, Kohli first returned to his family area near Chandigarh. After learning that British police were treating him as a suspect, he disappeared. He traveled through different parts of India and eventually settled in the Darjeeling region under a false identity. He avoided capture for more than a year.

Hannah’s parents, Trevor and Hilary Foster, played a major role in keeping the case active. In July 2004, they traveled to India and made public appeals for help finding Kohli. Their campaign drew major attention from the Indian media. A reward was also offered for information leading to his arrest.

Kohli was arrested on July 15, 2004, in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal while trying to flee toward Nepal. After his arrest, he made a televised confession in India, admitting that he had raped and killed Hannah. He later retracted that statement, and it was not used as evidence in the British trial.

The extradition process lasted several years. Kohli fought being returned to the United Kingdom, but Indian authorities eventually approved extradition. On July 28, 2007, he arrived back in Britain and was charged with Hannah Foster’s murder, rape, kidnap, false imprisonment, manslaughter, and perverting the course of justice.

His trial began at Winchester Crown Court on October 13, 2008. Kohli denied the charges, but the prosecution presented forensic evidence, witness material, and details of his flight from the country. On November 25, 2008, he was found guilty of murder, rape, kidnap, and false imprisonment.

Kohli was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 24 years. The trial judge said the crime was aggravated by Hannah’s vulnerability, the ordeal she suffered before death, the disposal of her body, and the grief inflicted on her family.