THE father of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, the chief suspect for the murder of Hampshire teenager Hannah Foster, has declared that his son is innocent.
Speaking to Meridian TV last night, Kohli's father claims his son flew to India to visit his mother who is in a coma after falling from a bus.
And yet he declared that if his son is guilty of the murder of Hannah Foster, he should be hanged and vowed he would never protect him from the authorities.
Kohli flew to Delhi two days after 17-year-old Hannah's body was discovered in a country lane near her Southampton home last March. She had been raped and murdered.
Kohli, a 35-year-old father of two, who worked as a sandwich delivery driver, has become one of Britain's most wanted men. He remains on the run more than three months into the investigation.
Speaking from his home in Mohali, Kohli's father, Harjit Singh, said: "Do you think the man who is trying to come to see his mother, arranging money, would rape and murder?
"No, no. He told us in the morning that 'I've to go back to be with my wife and children because my father-in-law is creating problems, they will not send my children I will have to go there'.
"These words he told us thereafter. I don't know where he is.
"Kindly request your British authorities to trace the real culprit from there.
"They have focussed on only one person. I say if he has committed crime hang him. I would be the last person to protect him. I would have no regret if he has done something with this crime. He should be punished and he should face the music. I will not protect him.
"If he's innocent God will protect him."
"He's a God fearing, religious man. He cannot think of such things because of his training and his education, which he got here and my family, my family background.
"I am 100 per cent convinced (he could not do such a thing)."
Hampshire police believe Kohli would not fight extradition to the UK because of the superior standard of UK prisons compared to the ones in India.
But that could take a long time.
Advocate Baljinder Singh of the Punjab High Court, said: "For a person alleged to have caused murder, a case is decided against him and he is sentenced. The minimum sentence provided is for life imprisonment apart from imposing a fine. And when that person files an appeal in the High Court it takes about five to six years for deciding his case."
Kohli's two brothers are both police officers, one of who is married to a police intelligence officer. His father remains at home tending his sick mother, and Harjit Singh remains convinced that his son could never commit such a heinous crime.
"Whenever we heard about him, if he contact us, on telephone or via the other media we will ask him, advise him to surrender and prove his innocence," he said.
"If he is guilty then let him go to the dogs, we will not protect him but I am 99 per cent sure he did not commit this heinous crime, he could not even think of it."
Hampshire police still confident they will track down Maninder Pal Singh Kohli in India - see the Spotlight feature on pages 8 & 9 of today's Daily Echo.
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