Kohli being taken to the Kharar court. (PTI)

Kharar (Punjab), July 28: Maninderpal Singh Kohli today admitted to the rape and murder of British schoolgirl Hannah Foster.

In a confession statement, the prime accused said he had raped Hannah twice and killed her after she threatened to go to police. The statement was made before Punjab police, who have been interrogating him in a fake passport case.

After fleeing from the UK, Kohli had acquired a passport in the name of Rohan Mehta during his stay in Mohali from March 18 to 29 last year.

“I abducted, raped and killed Hannah Foster,” Kohli repeated on television. He claimed he had no option but to kill the 17-year-old after she threatened to report him to the police. “I was very drunk that day.”

Kohli, who was arrested in Kalimpong this month, said he had seen Hannah on the night of the murder and was not stalking her.

Police sources said Kohli, who was medically examined at a Mohali police station before being taken to an undisclosed destination, wanted to speak to the media earlier in the day in the Kharar sub-judicial magistrate’s court hearing the passport case. “We had orders not to allow any reporter to speak to him,” a police officer said.

IG S.S. Saini, when contacted, claimed that Kohli had confessed to the crime on his own soon after he came out of the court when he, some other officers and mediapersons were sitting with the accused. “It all started when he was asked why he had evaded the law. He gave his version about the crime he had committed (in the UK),” Saini said.

“Very little coercive measures were used. This is a statement made by Maninderpal. He was also scared of what the future held for him and his old parents. We are taking cognisance of what he has said in his statement,” he said.

Sources said Kohli was threatened with third degree methods by Punjab police to make him confess. He was also made to witness third degree methods being used on a hardened criminal in the afternoon.

The accused said he had been drinking in a bar on the night of March 14 last year when he saw Hannah. He followed her for a while before abducting her. “My vehicle was also nearby,” he said.

After Hannah threatened to go to the police, Kohli claims he told her his mother was ill in India and he had to go to see her and that it was his bad luck that the incident had happened.

“Maninderpal strangled Hannah by gagging her mouth, took the body to a deserted street and dumped it there. Had she received medical attention, she probably would have survived. We will interrogate Maninderpal further to find out if she was indeed dead as he says or she was strangled again to make sure she was dead. He is no petty criminal,” a police officer said.

Punjab police are planning to hand him over to the CBI within the next couple of days. “The CBI would have to decide on Maninderpal’s extradition so that he can be handed to the Hampshire police and tried for the crime in the UK. Our job is done,” a police officer said.

Kohli’s father Jagjit Singh and brothers Amritpal and Ishprit, now in police custody, are also accused in the passport case.