A Delhi court on Friday allowed the extradition of NRI Maninder Pal Singh Kohli to the United Kingdom for facing trial in the rape-cum-murder case of British teenager Hannah Claire Foster.
"I hold that there is sufficient material on record, which prima facie makes out a case for the extradition of fugitive criminal to the United Kingdom," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau said.
The court, however, made it clear that no death penalty should be awarded to Kohli even after he is found guilty after the trial there.
The court lent credence to the scientific and forensic evidence submitted before it by the External Affairs Ministry indicating the presence of the victim's blood sample in a delivery van of the Hazzelwood Food Company, which was allegedly driven by Kohli.
Allowing the Centre's plea regarding the Kohli's conduct after the incident, the court said that the act of fleeing from Britain on the pretext of visiting his ailing mother in India and his continuous effort to evade the arrest had made it a fit case to extradite him.
The court also took into account the telephonic records, which indicated that Hannah had made desperate phone calls on police helpline numbers on the night of her murder on March 14, 2003.
The court had, on May 14, reserved the order on Kohli's extradition to Britain after the government favoured his deportation for facing trial there. Kohli has been in custody for over two years after his arrest on July 14, 2004 at Kalimpong in West Bengal.
Opposing the extradition proceedings that began in September 2004, Kohli had said that he was merely a suspect in the case.
Kohli is charged with raping and murdering the 17-year-old British girl and then fleeing to India from Britain two days after the victim's body was found.
'He must pay':
Hillary Foster, the mother of British teenager Hannah Claire who was raped and murdered allegedly by Kohli, has welcomed the Delhi court's order.
"After three long years, it is a very good feeling to know that he (Kohli) will come to the United Kingdom and face a trial," she said in London.
"But we have to get a conviction. The man who brutally murdered my daughter has to pay for his crimes and I will be satisfied only if he gets conviction," Foster said.
Reacting to the court's order that no death penalty be awarded to Kohli even if he was found guilty after the trial there, she said: "It is not legal in our country. We have to accept that, that is the rule of the land."
