MANINDER Pal Singh Kohli told the court that he “decided to go on the run” in India after finding out he was the prime suspect.

Kohli, 41, said he made the decision – which he described as “the biggest mistake I made” – after taking advice from a retired judge who he met by chance on a train.

Kohli said he had left Chandigarh where his mother was in a coma on March 28, 2003, after hearing that his wife in England had been taken away by police.

Kohli told jurors at Winchester Crown Court how he didn’t want to cause his family in India any trouble and so told them he had to return to the UK to sort out his children’s passports.

The court heard how he boarded a train to New Delhi with the intention of flying back to England but met the elderly stranger and asked his advice on European law.

He told the man how he had a friend who was having to go back to England because police had made him a suspect for a murder.

He claimed that the retired judge then said to him “they never make anyone suspect without any evidence”.

Kohli then said he was advised to tell his friend to seek legal advice and should not go back to the UK straight away.

The man then said: “India is a big country, he can stay anywhere.”

Asked what he did next by defence counsel Abbas Lakha QC, Kohli said he got off the train and went to the nearest temple in a “weakened” state.

He said that he began weighing up his options. He said he didn’t know what evidence was against him but did know he wasn’t liked in Southampton because of his gambling.

Kohli said: “I decided to go on the run, wait for better and good time. I wanted to see what evidence against me. I just wait for the day that I hear in my favour. I knew I didn’t do anything. “ Kohli said he was hoping for “something good to show someone else was responsible for it (the murder).”