Murder of Hannah Foster

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Hannah Foster (31 August 1985 - 14 March 2003) was a British schoolgirl who was abducted near her home in Portswood, Southampton by Indian immigrant Maninder Pal Singh Kohli. She was later sexually assaulted and murdered.

Foster, a promising student who had been preparing to study medicine, was abducted half a mile from her home in Hampshire on 14 March, 2003. Foster's body was found in a country lane on the outskirts of Southampton two days later and a post-mortem examination revealed she had been raped and strangled.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli is believed to have fled to India in March 2004, shortly after Foster's body was found, and later identified by investigators as a prime suspect in the murder case. After Indian police failed to apprehend Kohli, Foster's parents personally went to India and made a public appeal for information of Kohli's whereabouts. During their 10-day visit, Foster's parents held a series of press conferences as well as opening a telephone "hotline". Their visit soon became a subject of interest in the Indian press, Kohli was arrested five days after their arrival. Hampshire police announced a reward of Rs. 50 lakh (5 million) to anyone whose clues led to the arrest of Kohli.

Kohli was arrested on July 15, 2004 in West Bengal's Darjeeling district while trying to flee to Nepal. While in police custody, Kohli stated he was "tired of running". On July 28, 2004, Kohli admitted to having raped and murdered Foster in an interview to a private television channel. Confessing to his crime, Kohli said that he was forced to kill Foster after raping her because she refused to cover up his crime. In August 2004, he retracted his confessional statement saying it was "not by my own will".

Kohli is in judicial custody in India pending extradition to the United Kingdom, as of 2006.