THE Hampshire detective who has been on the trail of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli for more than a year may have to wait up to two months longer before he can question him.

Not even Det Supt Alan Betts has been allowed access to Kohli, the prime suspect in the Hannah Foster murder inquiry, despite travelling 2,000 miles from the Punjab to see him after he was arrested last week in the West Bengal region of India.

As Kohli is in judicial custody detectives from outside the police force area where he was captured are not allowed to see him under Indian law.

Det Supt Betts must wait up to 60 days while an extradition order is prepared and officially filed to the Indian authorities.

He said: "I have waited 16 months to speak to him so I can live with having to wait a couple more. At least I know he is in custody. He is in a shack in custody so knowing that he is there is good enough for me at the moment."

He has now returned to the Indian capital Delhi to liaise with Indian officials over the arrangements for Kohli's extradition.

Once the request has been officially filed by the Crown Prosecution Service in Hampshire it is expected Kohli will then be transferred to Delhi where he will appear before a specially arranged court to deal with the extradition request. The whole process is expected to take months.

Det Supt Betts said from his discussions with the British High Commission there is no recent history of a suspect being extradited from India to the UK.

"We want to get it right and that is going to take time. We are certainly not expecting anything to happen within the next week," he said.

Director general of the Punjab police force Mr AA Siddiqui, is also looking forward to finally laying eyes on Kohli.

He told the Daily Echo: "Kohli has been put on police remand by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"We are number two in the line but first the CBI will have to do their formalities. They have the first right. We will get him when they have finished.

"I would like to know how he was financed and how he ended up marrying the Nepali girl. Obviously, because he was not in touch with his family here, from somewhere he was getting financial support and that could be in Southampton."

Kohli fled to India two days after Hannah's body was found in a hedge beside Allington Lane, West End, in March 2003. She had been raped and strangled.

Hampshire police identified Kohli as the prime suspect in the case after an appeal was broadcast on the BBC's Crimewatch programme.