Kolkata: The Foster parents today (July 19, 2004) expressed their gratitude to the people and the police in India for their help leading to the arrest of Maninder Singhpal Kohli, the prime suspect in the rape and murder of their daughter Hannah, in Kalimpong.

"We are both delighted with the arrest of the suspect Kohli", the parents Trevor and Hilary Foster said, according to a British Deputy High Commission release in Kolkata.

"We would like to thank so many people for their help. The media in India for the magnificent support and coverage they have given to this case," they said in the statement.

The Fosters were particularly thankful to the people in the locality of Kalimpong, for the support and assistance "they have given us and particularly for the help they have given in locating Kohli."

The parents also thanked the Indian police, "particularly the West Bengal police, for the professional and committed way in which they located and arrested Kohli."

"We are truly grateful to you all," they said.

A Kalimpong court has ordered Kohli to be handed over to the CBI for further investigation. The Foster parents, already in India, earlier had made an appeal to the people to trace the prime suspect in the rape and murder of their daughter in Southampton (UK) in March 2003.