Murder
Foster, a promising A-Level student who had been preparing to study medicine at university, was abducted half a mile from her home in Hampshire on 14 March 2003. Having been abducted by Kohli, Foster secretly made a call to emergency services in the hope they would realise she was in trouble. On the 999 tape, Foster can be heard speaking to a man with an Asian accent. The tape was played during the later trial at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday 15 October 2008.
Foster's body was found in a country lane just outside Southampton two days later. A post-mortem examination revealed she had been raped and strangled.
Kohli fled to India shortly after Foster's body was found, and was later identified by investigators as a prime suspect in the case. After Indian police failed to apprehend Kohli, Foster's parents personally went to India and made a public appeal for information of his 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, and Kohli was arrested five days after their arrival. Hampshire police announced a reward of INR 5,000,000 to anyone whose clues led to the arrest of Kohli.
The key to the arrest of Kohli was information from taxi driver Jason Lepcha, hired by Kohli partly because of his understanding of English. Lepcha received a reward of INR 367,000. He used all this money to establish a school in Hannah's name. When visiting Darjeeling in 2006, Hannah's parents unwittingly hired Lepcha as their driver, and heard his story. On their return to England, they worked with others to set up a registered charity in memory of Hannah which supports Lepcha's school.
Read more about this topic: Murder Of Hannah Foster
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