Kohli challenges his extradition to UK in Hannah Foster murder case

New Delhi, June 15 (UNI) Delhi High Court will hear on Monday the petition of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli challenging a lower court's order to extradite him to United Kingdom to face trial for the murder of teenager Hanna Foster.

Kohli, accused of criminally assaulting and murdering Foster, filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the proceedings of the External Affairs Ministry to extradite him to UK and challenging the lower court's order allowing him to be extradited.

The Vacation Bench, comprising Justices J P Singh and S Muralidhar will hear his plea on June 18.

On June 8, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau had ordered his extradition on the grounds that it was a fit case and all the documents supporting his involvement in the offence were present. The judge relied upon the forensic, medical and photographic evidence produced before her by the British Police against him and ordered the exradition.

Kohli has contented that he has been falsely implicated and will not get fair trial in UK as he was an Asian. Claiming he was innocent, he said he feared his life will be ''in danger'' if the trial goes on in the UK.

Extradition proceedings against Kohli began in September 2004 and the order on his extradition came on June 8, 2007.

Kohli is accused of criminally assaulting Foster before murdering her. The body of the teenager was found on the outskirts of Southampton, Hampshire in March 2003. Police investigations revealed that Kohli was behind her killing, as he was identified with the help of photographs taken by the cameras placed on the roads. Kohli had fled to India soon after the crime. Hannah's parents had come to India to search for the victim. After Kohli's photograph was flashed across newspapers, he was tracked down and arrested from Kalimpong (West Bengal), where he was stying under an assumed name and had also remarried, on July 14, 2004 and was brought to Delhi.

During the trial, Kohli had wanted his first wife, who is residing in UK to come to India and depose in his favour but the court did not allow it. Detained in Tihar jail during the proceedings, Kohli had also complained that he was facing threats in the jail.

UNI