"I have here copies of letters which I intend to send on Wednesday to President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh asking for their personal intervention to bring some much awaited momentum and priority back to this extradition process.
I have also written to the Honourable Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to ask for his help and intend to hand this letter to him in person when we attend the High court appeal haring on Wednesday morning," Trevor Foster told newsmen at a press conference held at Indian Women's Press Crop in New Delhi on Tuesday. The Fosters arrived on Monday night and would leave for England on Sunday.
Kohli, brothers in police custody
They came here last in July 2004 when they asked for the media help in tracing Maninder Pal Singh Kohli who had been avoiding arrest for sixteen months till then.
As a result of information supplied by the public and the vigilance of the West Bengal police the suspect was arrested within four days of our arrival in India. We returned to England, unable to believe our good fortune that the suspect had been apprehended while so close to escaping across the border into Nepal," he said in a written statement made available to the newsmen after the press conference.
Kohli who has been lodged in the Tihar jail has been fighting his extradition case for last18 months. "We have noted with concern that up to the end of January 2006, while the extradition court has sat on 66 separate occasions, 32 of these sessions have been adjourned without any business being conducted except to further the remand of the prisoner. As Hannah's family, we are unable to move on with our lives while the process is allowed to drag on, the suspect, who maintains his innocence, is incarcerated in Tihar jail," he said.
There is an extradition treaty between India and Great Britain but it has been used only once when Britain agreed to hand over a wanted criminal by the name of Pintoo to the Indian authorities.
According to the Scotland Yard Hannah was returning home from a party with her friends and was barely 500 meters away from her home when she was picked up by Kohli in his truck and raped and murdered. He fled Britain after committing the crime. He was living on the Nepal border and had married another woman under an assumed name when the West Bengal police arrested him in July 2004.
