INDIAN police chiefs are investigating whether the prime suspect in the Hannah Foster murder inquiry has gone into hiding with a religious sect in the north of the country.

The new lead has come as Hannah's parents Hilary and Trevor Foster arrive in India to appeal directly to the public for their help in catching Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, pictured above.

According to the Punjab's deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh it is thought Kohli may have gone into hiding with a Sikh religious sect in a bid to evade capture.

Kohli has remained at large in India since he was named as the prime suspect in the murder hunt 15 months ago.

Seventeen-year-old Hannah was abducted as she walked home from a night out with friends on March 14 last year. Her body was later found dumped at Allington Lane in the West End area of Southampton. She had been raped and strangled.

Her parents have gone to India, where police believe Kohli fled two days after Hannah's body was found, to set up a phone line and to rejuvenate the investigation in the country.

They will spend 11 days holding press conferences, beginning in the Punjab region tomorrow and followed by another press launch in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

During their stay the couple will also meet members of the British High Commission and officers from the Punjab police and launch an independent phone line for people to call with any information as to Kohli's whereabouts.

The couple have been accompanied by Det Supt Alan Betts, who has been leading the murder investigation in Britain and who has himself visited India twice as part of the murder hunt.