NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has allowed the extradition of NRI Maninder Pal Singh Kohli to the United Kingdom for facing trial in the rape-cum-murder case of British teenager Hannah Claire Foster.

"I hold that there is sufficient material on record which prima facie makes out a case for the extradition of fugitive criminal to the United Kingdom," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau said. The court, however, made it clear that no death penalty be awarded to Kohli even after he is found guilty after the trial there.

The court lent credence to the scientific and forensic evidence submitted before it by the External Affairs Ministry indicating the presence of the victim's blood sample in a delivery van of the Hazzelwood Food Company which was allegedly driven by Kohli.

Allowing the Center's plea regarding the Kohli's conduct after the incident, the court said that the act of fleeing from Britain on the pretext of visiting his ailing mother in India and his continuous effort to evade the arrest had made it a fit case to extradite him.

The court also took into account the telephonic records which indicated that Hannah had made desperate phone calls on police helpline numbers on the night of her murder on March 14, 2003. Kohli has been in custody for over two years after his arrest on July 14, 2004 at Kalimpong in West Bengal. Opposing the extradition proceedings that began in September 2004, Kohli had said that he was merely a suspect in the case.