DETECTIVES hunting the killer of Hampshire student Hannah Foster are using the Daily Echo in their bid to track down the prime suspect in India.

Copies of front page articles have been shown to detectives from the Indian equivalent of the FBI in a bid to highlight the seriousness of the case.

Three Hampshire officers have spent the past week liaising with police, Interpol and the British High Commission in India to speed up the international manhunt for Maninder Pal Singh Kohli.

The 35-year-old is believed to be in hiding in the Punjab after catching a flight from Heathrow two days after Hannah's body was found dumped in a country lane at West End in March.

Now the three officers - who were meant to be flying back to Britain today - have extended their stay while lengthy administrative work continues with the Indian authorities.

A team of detectives remains working on the investigation from a major incident room at Hulse Road divisional police headquarters in Southampton.

Today it emerged the Daily Echo was playing a role in the painstaking liaison work in India.

Officers confirmed copies of newspaper articles about Hannah's brutal death and the subsequent murder hunt - codenamed Operation Springfield - had been shown to Indian detectives working on the case.

Officers from the elite Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) based in New Delhi have been drafted in to help locate the suspect. Speaking from Delhi last night, Det Supt Alan Betts, leading the murder hunt, said: "We are making some good progress, with lots of intelligence being gathered.

"More is coming in from the major incident room at Hulse Road so we are continually being updated.

"We are dealing face to face with the CBI and Interpol, as well as communicating electronically and by phone with police in the Punjab.

"India is a massive country and as a result there are a considerable number of murders, so we have been attempting to stress to the police just how important this case is.

"We have shown them cuttings from British newspapers including the Daily Echo. Hopefully this coupled with our presence in India will show them just how serious we are about making progress."

Delivery driver Singh, formerly of Broadlands Road, Swaythling, was identified as the prime suspect following an appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme on March 28. Police inquiries revealed he had travelled to India four days after 17-year-old Hannah disappeared while walking home from a night out in Bevois Valley. Her body was found in undergrowth at Allington Lane on Sunday, March 16. She had been raped and strangled. Singh's wife, Shalinder Kaur, has twice been questioned about her husband's disappearance.

Singh, who has sons aged four and six, is thought to have spent ten days with his bedridden mother and other relatives in Chandigarh.