A LEGAL expert says it could be months if not years before the man wanted in connection with the brutal murder of Hampshire student Hannah Foster is back on British soil.

The warning comes two years to the day since the 17-year-old was murdered as she walked home in Southampton.

It was on March 14, 2003, that Hannah was abducted as she made her way home after a night out with friends.

Her body was later found dumped in undergrowth at the side of Allington Lane in West End. She had been raped and strangled.

Now, despite being arrested seven months ago, the main suspect Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, pictured left, is still languishing in an Indian jail.

He was arrested in the Kalimpong region in July after Hannah's parents Hilary and Trevor made the emotional trip to the country to appeal direct to the Indian public for information concerning the 36-year-old's whereabouts.

After his arrest, Kohli was transferred to the Delhi prison of Tihar where he has since remained, regularly appearing in court for the protracted legal hearings and apparently receiving treatment for a gall bladder complaint at a nearby medical college. He is said to have already undergone an operation.

Petitions have also been filed by his legal representatives claiming he is being ill treated in prison.

British Crown Prosecution Service bosses say they have done all they can to aid Kohli's return to the UK, having filed relevant paper work within weeks.

Now they must wait for the notoriously long Indian judicial system to take its course.

Sarah de Mas, of the Fair Trials Abroad organisation, said Kohli's extradition could take months if not years.

Ms de Mas told the Daily Echo: "The Indian judicial system is certainly one of the slowest. It is not like here when a date is set and then the proceedings go head until completion. In India they have a day here and there and it could be weeks before the next one.

"In our experience of dealing with trials in India the whole process can take many, many months, if not years. It would not be a surprise to me to hear it has taken this long already, and it could take more than a year, perhaps two.

"However, people shouldn't give up hope, it just takes a very long time."

At the weekend prayers were being said in Highfield Church, close to the home of the teenager who studied at Barton Peveril College in Eastleigh, and where her funeral took place.

The Fosters were marking the anniversary of Hannah's death in private.