AN INDIAN court has ordered murder suspect Maninder Pal Singh Kohli be let out of prison for treatment to complications brought on by a gall bladder operation.

According to an Indian news agency, magistrates ordered Kohli be taken from the Tihar jail in Delhi, where he has been in custody, to a nearby medical and teaching school called the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

It is understood he has developed complications following an operation to remove gall bladder stones.

The 36-year-old, wanted in connection with the alleged murder of Southampton student Hannah Foster, has been complaining of stomach pains during extradition proceedings that have been heard before the Indian courts in Delhi.

After hearing representations from Kohli's lawyers, additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Ravinder Dudeja, issued an order asking for Kohli to be transferred from prison to hospital for treatment.

It has been six months since Kohli was arrested in Kalimpong, near Darjeeling, West Bengal.

His capture came following a high profile visit to India by Hannah's parents, Trevor and Hilary Foster, to ask for the Indian people's help in tracing Kohli who Hampshire detectives had named as a suspect.

Since then he has been appearing in court regularly for extradition hearings.

Seventeen-year-old Hannah was abducted on her way home from a night out with friends on March 14, 2003.

Her body was found two days later in undergrowth in Allington Lane, West End.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo all the necessary paperwork relating to Kohli has been filed in the Indian courts by the British Crown Prosecution Service - the organisation overseeing the extradition.

However, proceedings have been dogged by Kohli's claims of ill health and the latest development could be a further delay to the progress of his extradition.

Hampshire police are waiting to hear whether the Indian authorities will grant the request and allow Kohli to be taken back to the UK to face questioning by police.

When he was arrested, in July last year, police were warned the extradition process could take up to a year to complete.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "If he is too unwell to attend court then the extradition process cannot go ahead."