THE prime suspect in the Hannah Foster murder investigation has been rushed to hospital with a stomach complaint.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli was receiving treatment after complaining of abdominal pain, the Daily Echo understands.

After initial tests, doctors confirmed the complaint was not serious and Kohli was expected to return to prison last night, according to reports in the Indian media.

But detectives in Southampton who led the 16-month hunt to catch Kohli say they had not been told of the news.

Det Supt Alan Betts said: "We have contacted the British High Commission and the Commonwealth Office and they did not know anything about it.

"All the advice we have been given is that if it was something like a stomach problem he would have been seen within the hospital at the prison - that's what we have been told."

He added that he was trying to make contact with the police in the West Bengal region where Kohli is being held to establish if the claims were accurate.

Kohli has been in jail since he was remanded in judicial custody after being arrested on July 15.

The arrest was made in the hillside village of Kalimpong near the Indian border with Nepal where Kohli had been living.

His capture ended a 16-month manhunt by the authorities in India and Hampshire who had been on Kohli's trail since he was identified as the prime suspect in the teenager's murder.

He had fled to his homeland four days after Hannah was abducted, raped and strangled in March last year.

Kohli was arrested after a member of the Indian public recognised him from media appeals that had been sparked by the visit of Hannah's parents, Trevor and Hilary Foster, to India in a bid to breathe new life into the inquiry there.

The couple had held two press conferences and launched a hotline in an effort to encourage people to come forward with information when a call was made with news of Kohli's whereabouts.

The 35-year-old remains in custody, where he has been remanded until July 29 while extradition papers requesting his return to the UK are prepared by Hampshire's Crown Prosecution Service.