Charles Sobhraj

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj, once one of the most wanted criminals in Asia, is set to walk free from a Nepal prison.

At a time of porous borders, Sobhraj moved from one country to another and committed a string of crimes. After his recapture following his escape from Tihar Jail, Sobhraj was given another 10-year prison term. He masqueraded as a gemstone trader to lure cash-strapped travellers before drugging, robbing and killing them. Sobhraj even sold his story from prison to a publishing house and recounted the murders in chilling detail while talking to reporters. Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj was born in Saigon in 1940 to an Indian businessman and a Vietnamese shop assistant. He ultimately spent 21 years in jail though he was never convicted of all the 24 murders he had committed in Thailand, Nepal and India.

French citizen is suspected of killing at least 20 foreign tourists in Asia during the 1970s.

He escaped from Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail in 1986 by giving the guards drugged sweets but was captured days later. He was later convicted of murdering Ms Bronzich’s Canadian friend Laurent Carriere in the same year. He spent a total of 21 years in prison in India.

KATHMANDU, Nepal—Confessed French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Nepal, ...

Sobhraj was held for two decades in New Delhi’s maximum-security Tihar prison on suspicion of theft but was deported without charge to France in 1997. The Frenchman has in the past admitted killing several Western tourists and he is believed to have killed at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran, and Hong Kong during the 1970s. [French](https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-french) [serial](https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-serial) [killer](https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-killer) Charles Sobhraj, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Nepal, was ordered Wednesday to be released because of poor health, good behavior and having already served most of his sentence.

Kathmandu [Nepal], December 22 (ANI): After meeting French serial killer Charles Sobhraj in the prison, his lawyer and Mother in law, Sakuntala Thapa said ...

The court concluded that the 78-year-old should be freed as he has already completed 95 per cent of his jail term. The French serial killer, also known as Serpent Killer, has been released on the grounds of old age. Sobhraj’s lawyers had long been demanding the court’s intervention for clemency.

'Bikini Killer' Charles Sobhraj had a partner in crime, Ajay Chowdhury. He often disposed of the bodies of those killed by his boss.

He meets Charles, and in the chase for the high life becomes his right-hand man. He was wanted for murders, thefts and robberies and is suspected to have burned the bodies of Sobhraj’s victims in Khatmandu. Bishwa Lal Shrestha, a police officer who investigated the case in 1975, told The Newsweek, “After discovering the bodies, we traced Chowdhury to a hotel, Monumental Lodge, in Kathmandu. The crime drama shows Chowdhury as one of the primary villains culpable in numerous crimes committed by Shobhraj. Like his boss, Chowdhury also managed to give the police a slip. Only Sobhraj was seen leaving the jungle, which led to speculations that Chowdhury might have been killed. Reports suggest that before Sobhraj’s arrest in India, he and Chowdhury were spotted in a Malaysian jungle, where they obtained gems from a town. The high-flying lifestyle attracted Chowdhury and eventually led to the dirty dark world of theft and murder. She was paroled and deported back to Canada after she testified in court. He was released in 1997, after which he went back to Nepal only to be arrested again. Ajay Chowdhury belonged to a middle-class Indian family and met Charles Sobhraj in New Delhi in 1975. He often disposed of the bodies of those killed by his boss.

The Nepalese jail authorities claim that the Supreme Court's decision is "vague" and does not mention in which case the release has been granted to him.

Charles Sobhraj was involved in a number of murder, theft and cheating cases. The Nepalese jail authorities claim that the Supreme Court's decision is "vague" and does not mention in which case the release has been granted to him. [By Munish Chandra Pandey](/author/munish-chandra-pandey): Jail authorities in Nepal have refused to release serial killer [Charles Sobhraj](https://www.indiatoday.in/binge-watch/story/who-is-charles-sobhraj-1786063-2021-04-01) even as the country's [Supreme Court ordered his release](https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/supreme-court-of-nepal-orders-bikini-killer-charles-sobhrajs-release-2311970-2022-12-21).

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police suspect was responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was due to be freed after nearly 20 ...

In 2003, he was arrested in Kathmandu, in connection with the 1975 murders of Bronzich and Carriere, after being spotted at a casino. He was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in the capital, New Delhi, in 1976, before he could stand trial on the charges against him in Thailand. He had been held in a high-security jail in Kathmandu since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.

Charles Sobhraj wouldn't live on the street as his mother had; he would have a respectable life. But punishments only angered Charles further.

To maintain the standards he wanted to portray to the world, he was in constant need of money. He was frequently in and out of the juvenile prisons in France. While in Poissy, Charles got an intimate exposure to the criminal underworld of France. His term in this Parisian prison was perhaps the last chance he had to pause—and reverse—the infernal storm taking over his soul. Charles was sent to a hostel in Paris while they moved back to Saigon. Charles was unable to bond with his new family in France. Noi’s firstborn was soon relegated to the status of the neglected child of warring, estranged parents—the child who didn’t fit anywhere. Four years passed by before Russel and Noi got the chance to visit Vietnam. Noi and the textile merchant fell in love, got married, and became parents to a baby boy in 1944. ‘I am sorry,’ he claimed when he was back in Vietnam. Charles, the Satan of this trail, wielded strength and notoriety enough to make anyone wince. The intensity of his new conversion became evident when he was asked about Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against the author, Salman Rushdie.

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who was suspected of a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, is due to be freed after 20 years in prison in Nepal.

In 2003, he was arrested in Kathmandu, in connection with the 1975 murders of Bronzich and Carriere, after being spotted at a casino. [India](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/indian-chinese-troops-clash-border-arunachal-pradesh-tawang-rcna61405) until 1997 when returned to [France](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/world-cup-final-live-updates-rcna62130). He was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in the capital, [New Delhi](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/india-new-delhi-air-pollution-rcna56535), in 1976, before he could stand trial on the charges against him in Thailand. [Thailand](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/thai-warship-sinks-navy-searching-missing-sailors-rcna62333), where he was known as the “bikini killer,” issued a warrant for his arrest in the mid-1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women, some of whom turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya. [Kathmandu](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/nepal-holy-bagmati-river-sewage-trash-environment-kathmandu-rcna43471) since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.

Nepal's top Court also tells government to send him to his home country France in 15 days.

A day ago, Nihita Biswas was beaming with joy after she learnt that the Supreme Court of Nepal passed orders to release her husband notorious criminal ...

However, jail authorities in Nepal have refused to release the notorious criminal stating that the [Supreme Court's decision is "vague"](https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/nepal-jail-refuses-to-release-bikini-killer-charles-sobhraj-despite-court-order-2312316-2022-12-22) and does not mention for which case was the release being granted to him. Nihita Biswas had told the press that she fell for Sohbraj when he asked for an interpreter in prison. Nihita Biswas married notorious criminal Charles Shobraj when he was in jail and made news.

A notorious robber in the 1970s, Sobhraj served a prison term in India for killing foreign tourists before escaping jail by drugging prison guards.

In 2008, he announced his engagement to Nihita Biswas, an interpreter and the daughter of his lawyer. With his additional sentence for the escape, Sobhraj remained in India until after the statute of limitations on his crimes in Thailand ran out. Sobhraj's lawyer claimed that he was the victim of racism. He tried to escape from prison in 2004, but failed. He spent part of his childhood on the rough streets of Saigon and was shuttled back and forth between his parents. Convicted on a lesser charge, Sobhraj was sentenced to seven years. Several of his intended victims were able to fight the drug's effects long enough to get help. In 1963, Sobhraj was arrested for stealing a car in France. Some of his other victims were also found in bikinis. He confessed to a number of other killings, but later retracted the confession. Sobhraj was born on April 6, 1944 in Saigon in Vietnam — now Ho Chi Minh City — to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother. His mother later had another child and married a soldier in the widely despised French army, which re-occupied Vietnam after the Second World War.

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj has been ordered released from a Nepal prison on December 22, 2022, due to his health condition and good behaviour.

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police suspect was responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, is due to be freed on Thursday after ...

He was later caught and jailed there until 1997. Sobhraj was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother. He returned to France following his release in India but in 2003 was arrested at a casino in Kathmandu in connection with the 1975 murders of Bronzich and Carriere. He was also known as "the serpent" because of his ability to disguise himself following his escape from a prison in India in the mid-1980s. Register for free to Reuters and know the full story KATHMANDU, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police suspect was responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, is due to be freed on Thursday after nearly 20 years in prison in Nepal, his lawyer said.

Sobhraj was convicted for the murders of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich and Canadian Laurent Carriere. Nepal's Supreme Court ordered his release due to ...

For reasons that remain unclear, Sobhraj then returned to Nepal, where he was wanted by police for murder. Judges ordered Sobhraj’s release within days on the basis of his old age, good conduct, and the length of prison term already served, according to a ruling issued by Nepal’s Supreme Court. Sobhraj spent 21 years imprisoned in India from 1976 after being convicted of theft.

Nepal's apex court on Wednesday directed the prison management authority to free the serial killer on the ground of age.

A division bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha has also asked the government to arrange to send him to his home country, France, within 15 days. The Kathmandu District Court, however, later gave him clearance. Charles Sobhraj to spend another night at Kathmandu jailNepal’s apex court on Wednesday directed the prison management authority to free the serial killer on the ground of age.

From petty crimes, Sobhraj graduated to robbing and murdering Western backpackers. As the Nepal Supreme Court orders his release from jail, here's a glimpse ...

Sobhraj was caught similarly at a Nepal casino in 2003 after he went to France following his release from India in 1997. However, the day he proposed, Sobhraj was nabbed for driving a stolen vehicle and evading police. In the 1970s, he went on a murder spree and killed 15 to 20 people. Sobhraj was arrested in Delhi during a trip for drugging French students in a city hotel. He used these to lure and trap Western tourists in Asia, mostly women backpackers, while masquerading as a gemstone trader. It springs from his unique style statement, the way he dressed, his ability to speak different languages eloquently and his refined demeanour.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj will be released from a prison in Nepal on Friday after the Supreme Court ordered him to be freed on Wednesday.

Sobhraj was wanted in Nepal for murdering two North American tourists- Connie Jo Bronzich and his Canadian companion Laurent Carrière — in 1975. Charles Sobhraj, who is of Vietnamese and Indian parentage, was linked to murdering more than 20 people throughout Asia. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued an order to free Sobhraj based on a legal provision that prisoners who completed 75% of their jail term and showed good character during imprisonment could be released.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj expected to return to France but will not leave prison until Friday, lawyer says.

A decade later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian companion. It was sheer luck that I recognised him,” Nathan told AFP on Thursday. “I think it was karma.” He was arrested in India in 1976 and ultimately spent 21 years in jail there, with a brief break in 1986 when he escaped and was caught again in the Indian coastal state of Goa. He was soon spotted in Kathmandu’s tourist district by journalist Joseph Nathan, now an adviser to the Himalayan Times daily, and arrested in a casino. Suave and sophisticated, he was implicated in his first murder, that of a young American woman whose body was found on a beach wearing a bikini, in 1975.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Confessed French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Nepal, was ordered Wednesday ...

Sobhraj was held for two decades in New Delhi's maximum-security Tihar prison on suspicion of theft but was deported without charge to France in 1997. Life sentences in Nepal are 20 years. The Frenchman has in the past admitted killing several Western tourists and he is believed to have killed at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the 1970s.

Nicknamed "the Bikini Killer" and "the Serpent", Sobharaj was serving a life-term in the Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American woman Connie ...

He was slapped with a life sentence for the murder after a trial. The immigration authorities have requested to postpone his release till Friday as they need preparation for his accommodation," said his lawyer Gopal Shivakoti Chintan. Sobhraj through his petition had claimed that he had completed his jail term as per the ‘concessions’ entitled to senior citizens of Nepal.

NEW DELHI: It was in 1986 that Charles Sobhraj scripted his great escape from Tihar by offering drug-laced sweets to prison staff on the pretext of ...

He was tried and convicted in the case,” he said. A popular businessman Rajender Sethi was also well connected to Sobhraj as he was also dealing with his case in UK and wanted Sobhraj’s help,” he said. In 2014, he was convicted of killing Laurent Carriere, a Canadian backpacker, and given a second life sentence. Hall, a UK national who was arrested in a case of drugs, was indebted to Sobhraj as he had got Hall released based on false medical papers. It was around 3-3:30 pm when the incident took place,” he added. He drugged them, made them unconscious, then robbed them and many a times managed to kill them,” he said. Terming Sobhraj as ‘a heartless and ruthless character’ who sometimes pretended to be spiritual, intellectual, soft gentleman, the officer said he took full advantage of having mixed parentage. Amod Kanth, founder of Prayas NGO, was then the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), was tasked with investigating the case, that had led to a huge furore, nationally and internationally. “With the help of his friend David Hall, he managed to get a drug called Larpose and got it mixed with burfi in heavy doses. In those times, since cooking was allowed inside the jail, he got sweets prepared for his birthday. In those days since there were no limitations on the number of guests, all sorts of people used to come and meet him during the day,” he added. He scripted his great escape in March 1986, only to be caught after 22 days by Delhi Police.

How Charles Sobhraj, an escape artist, turned into a cold-blooded murderer The story of the flesh-and-blood 'bikini killer,' who eventually came to be known ...

To maintain the standards he wanted to portray to the world, he was in constant need of money. With his zest for life intact, Charles married his Indian-Nepali interpreter, Nihita Biswas, the daughter of his lawyer 44 years his junior, inside the prison in 2010. Charles had decided to build on this and to learn all he could about clues to the human character; the better, he thought, one day to mould them to his will. A 10-year sentence for jailbreak was added to the charges against him: just as he had calculated. The fact that he had fashioned a new identity as a gem dealer started attracting more hippies to his den. Charles knew all along that his path was not easy and he had to keep upgrading himself in order to evade the arms of law. “It is better to be a citizen of the world than of Rome,” he told Alain Benard, his benevolent lawyer in France, to whom he portrayed himself as a wounded young man. He managed to convince the jail authorities to bring him books on literature and foreign languages,” writes Raamesh Koirala, a surgeon who performed his heart surgery in 2017, in Charles Sobhraj: Inside the Heart of the Bikini Killer (Rupa Publications). “His term in the Parisian prison was perhaps the last chance he had to pause—and reverse—the infernal storm taking over his soul. The prison priest described him as “exceptionally bright, and a rebel,” who lived in a world of his own, refusing to come to terms with reality. When Hatchand once tried, he spent frustrating days at the Indian Consulate in Saigon, trying to obtain a passport and citizen papers. As a young boy, Sobhraj was christened Charles after the hero of the times, President de Gaulle.

The so-called Bikini Killer committed at least 12 murders and repeatedly escaped the law with serpentine slipperiness.

It was probably hubris that caused Sobhraj to return to Nepal in 2003 — one of the few countries where he was still wanted. Herman Knippenberg, a Dutch diplomat who was key to uncovering details about Sobhraj, told The Guardian in 2020 that he killed his victims because they rejected his criminal entreaties. He often used the passport and identities of his victims to travel to multiple countries. A trial court convicted him, but he was acquitted by the Allahabad HC and then the Supreme Court in 1996 after the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. He would be accused of killing at least another 11 people in Thailand, Nepal, and India; some estimates put the number of his victims at 30. Sobhraj was born to an expatriate Indian moneylender and a Vietnamese woman in French-occupied Saigon in 1944.

Disarmament expert Angela Kane played a key role in the 1970s in helping to secure the arrest of the French criminal linked to more than 20 murders across ...

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, responsible for multiple murders of young foreigners in the 1970s across Asia, was set to be released from prison on ...

"I don't have any feelings towards him now that it's been so long," said Suthimai, 90. A decade later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion. It was sheer luck that I recognised him," Nathan told AFP on Thursday. "I think it was karma." Thai police officer Sompol Suthimai, whose work with Interpol was instrumental in securing the arrest of Sobhraj in 1976, had pushed for him to be extradited to Thailand and tried for the murders he committed there. Behind bars, Sobhraj maintained that he was innocent of both murders and claimed he had never been to Nepal before the trip that resulted in his arrest.

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was freed from prison in Nepal on Friday ...

KATHMANDU, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was freed from prison in Nepal on Friday after nearly 20 years behind bars, according to a Reuters witness. (This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words from the headline) Convicted killer Charles Sobhraj freed from Nepal prison - Reuters witness

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, responsible for multiple murders of young foreigners in the 1970s across Asia, was set to be released from prison on ...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police say is responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was freed from...

Nicknamed 'the Bikini Killer' and 'the Serpent', Sobhraj was serving a life-term in the Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American woman Connie Jo ...

The immigration authorities have requested to postpone his release till Friday as they need preparation for his accommodation,” said his lawyer Gopal Shivakoti Chintan. His release was delayed by a day as the immigration authorities on Thursday requested to postpone his release till Friday citing lack of space to accommodate him. Nicknamed “the Bikini Killer” and “the Serpent” due to his skill at deception and evasion, Sobhraj was serving a life-term in the Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American woman Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 in Nepal.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, responsible for multiple murders of young foreigners in the 1970s across Asia, was freed on Friday after spending ...

A decade later he was also found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian companion. He was recaptured in the Indian coastal state of Goa. "I don't have any feelings towards him now that it's been so long," said Suthimai, 90. It was sheer luck that I recognised him," Nathan told AFP on Thursday. "I think it was karma." Sobhraj also wants that," Gopal Shiwakoti Chintan told reporters, adding that he would be departing on a Qatar Airways flight at 6pm (1215 GMT).