BREAKTHROUGH IN HANNAH MURDER

The net is closing in on Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, who fled Britain to his native India two days after Hannah's body was discovered.

The Daily Echo has been told exclusively that officers have a new lead in the hunt for Kohli after he made a call to friends or family in Hampshire.

A team of dedicated officers in the Punjab region of India have managed to locate the area he made the call from and are now focusing their efforts on pinpointing the actual telephone he used.

The breakthrough was revealed in an exclusive interview to the Daily Echo last night by the Punjab's chief of police, Mr A A Siddiqui, who is in Southampton on a private holiday visiting friends and family. It is one of the biggest boosts to the investigation into Hannah's murder almost 15 months ago.

Telling of his great sadness that they had not yet managed to locate Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, the prime suspect wanted for Hannah's murder, Mr A A Siddiqui, director general of Punjab police in India, said he sympathised with the Foster family and shared their grief.

Hannah had been walking home after a night out with friends in the Bevois Valley area of Southampton when she vanished on Friday, March 14 last year.

Police launched a full-scale search the next day but it ended in heartbreak on the Sunday afternoon when the body of the 17-year-old Barton Peveril A-level student, who had hoped to become a doctor, was discovered in undergrowth in Allington Lane.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had been raped and strangled.

Mr Siddiqui said: "I can only sympathise with the family. I feel their pain but I can't express it in the way they can.

"I can only promise that we will get the man thought to be responsible for Hannah's murder."

Mr A A Siddiqui talked exclusively to the Daily Echo during an evening with his friends during a short holiday in Britain.

He told how he took over as the top man in the Punjab state police force two years ago and has been a key figure in the hunt for Kohli ever since.

He said: "We are trawling through his phone calls and there is constant liaising between my force and Hampshire police.

"We have not had success yet but we are hopeful we will get that success. It's very important to us."

Mr Siddiqui said a senior officer was supervising the investigation, and he, along with a team of about six officers, was searching for former sandwich delivery driver Kohli.

"They have found that he made a telephone call to call his friends or family here in Hampshire. That was about a month and a half ago," said Mr Siddiqui.

"We have located the general area but not the telephone he used. It is difficult for us to do that in India as it is not as technically advanced as the UK.

"It will take a long time to find that telephone but I think we will get through these problems."

Mr Siddiqui said the officers and the people of the Punjab felt for all concerned in the case.

"It is very emotional. We feel sad and we feel very bad that we have not yet been able to do it."

Murder, rape and abduction are taken extremely seriously in India, a country where the death penalty still exists.

"In my country they are seen as heinous crimes. We still have the death penalty. There would be no pardon in a case like this."

Police believe Hannah was abducted just yards from her home in Grosvenor Road, Portswood.

One of the biggest murder hunts ever undertaken by Hampshire Constabulary began. It was code-named Operation Springfield and involved more than 100 officers from across the county.

It was not until Thursday, March 27, 2003, that police finally got the breakthrough they desperately wanted following a nationwide appeal on BBC's Crimewatch.

Kohli's name had been put forward - but he had already fled the country to his native home of India.

Britain has an extradition treaty with India and the police soon had a warrant from Southampton magistrates for Kohli's arrest.

Once the information had been passed to the relevant authorities, detectives in Southampton had no choice but to sit back. Despite visits to the country, they have no jurisdiction to work in India and must rely on the authorities in the Punjab to find Kohli.

Mr Siddiqui described the moment Indian police thought they would finally catch up with Kohli. When Maninder Pal Singh Kohli's father Harjit Singh died not long after he had fled to his native home, officers believed the time had come to catch the prime suspect. It was therefore hugely disappointing when those desperate to catch the man wanted for Hannah's murder, realised he was not going home.

Kohli's failure to return home to pay his respects to the man who had defended his name astounded them.

Mr Siddiqui explained: "It is tradition. You are supposed to come back, come to the funeral and say your respects. But he didn't turn up."

Detectives leading the inquiry knew that Kohli, 35, who had left behind his wife Shalinder Kaur, 33, and two children in Southampton, had visited his parents when he first arrived in India.

Kohli's mother is still alive and he has one brother and one sister living in the Punjab. They are keen to hear from him and see him again, regardless of whatever accusations have been made.

Mr Siddiqui added: "His family is very upset for him because no matter what he may have done he is their son and brother, their family."

Now one of Britain's most wanted men, there is a reward of five million rupees - about £70,000 - for information that will lead to Kohli's arrest.

The amount was so substantial it was thought someone would come forward but, almost 15 months after Hannah's murder, Kohli is still eluding police.

Mr Siddiqui said: "It is a very substantial amount. It is clear the man is hiding his identity and using pseudo names.

"We have had various sketches of him drawn up of how he could look. We made him shaven, unshaven, wearing a cap, everything. We circulated them on a large scale but we have not succeeded so far. It has been very strange but we have not lost hope."

There had been indications that Kohli had managed to slip into Nepal, but Mr Siddiqui says he believes Kohli is back in the Punjab region.

"We think he had left to go to Nepal. He couldn't have stayed long without money, without finances. He wouldn't have had the financial support to survive. I think he is back.

"We are now hoping for the moment he touches base."

Mr Siddiqui is confident that one day Kohli will be captured.

"Unless he gets himself killed or disappears out of the blue I am sure we will get him eventually.