Explained: The life of Charles Sobhraj also known as the ‘Bikini Killer’ and ‘The Serpent’

The Nepalese Supreme Court, on Wednesday (December 20), ordered the release of French serial killer and conman, Charles Sobhraj, who is serving his time in prison in Nepal after being convicted for the murder of two North American tourists in the country.According to the media reports, the court has ordered that the 78-year-old be released if there are no pending cases against him after which he has to be deported to France within 15 days. This comes after Sobhraj petitioned for an early release on health grounds for which reportedly even the French embassy had approached the Nepal government.

He is expected to walk out of the high-security prison in Nepal’s Kathmandu after 10 am (local time) after which he will reportedly be taken to the country’s immigration department for paperwork and will subsequently be sent to France in the coming days.

Troubled childhood

Born in April 1944 in French-occupied Saigon, Vietnam to an Indian traderand Vietnamese shop employee, Charles Sobhraj has been described as a conman, seducer, murderer, and thief, by his associates. According to reports, his parents were not married and his father never acknowledged Sobhraj as his son.

“Rejection by his father was an act which caused considerable resentment and bitterness in the young Sobhraj: ‘I will make you regret that you have missed your father's duty,’ he confided in his diary,” said an excerpt from an article by BBC in 2004.

He and his mother later moved to France where she later married a Frenchman, however, Sobhraj had never fit in with his new family and resented his father for his apparent abandonment. Since childhood, he had been in and out of several prisons in France for petty crimes.

Murderer on the ‘hippie trail’

In the early 1970s, he began travelling the world and befriending and reportedly, robbing western tourists who were on the so-called “hippie trail” from Europe to Southeast Asia. He would allegedly spike people’s drinks and kill their accomplices who were usually women. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the police suspected he killed at least 15 to 20 people.

In the mid-1970s, Thailand issued a warrant for his arrest and accused him of drugging and killing at least six women who wore bikinis on a beach in Pattaya. Hence, earning himself the moniker of the “bikini killer”. However, he could not be convicted on those charges since he was imprisoned in India.

In an interview with AFP, last year, Nadine Gires, who Sobhraj had befriended when he moved into her building in Bangkok in 1975, said, “Many people were getting sick in his home…He was not only a swindler, a seducer, a robber of tourists, but an evil murderer.”

This comes after she had soon begun to fear that her fast-talking neighbour who she said masqueraded as a gemstone trader was allegedly drugging, robbing and killing people. Notably, multiple reports suggest, this was Sobhraj’s modus operandi, he would charm and befriend backpackers and after killing them would allegedly also use their passports to travel to his next destination.

Arrest in India

Another moniker he earned over time was “The Serpent”, as he was arrested multiple times, in several countries but was able to evade or bribe his way out or get preferential treatment in prisons. In 1976, Sobhraj was arrested in India, after he and his three accomplices allegedly convinced some French students to hire them as guides and subsequently gave them pills lacedwith poison.

He was later convicted and sentenced to overall 21 years in prison. However, toward the end of Sobhraj’s sentence, he escaped from the high-security Tihar jail after giving prison guards sweets spiked with drugs for his “birthday” in 1986. He was caught after some 20 days in the Indian state of Goa and returned to jail until 1997.After his sentence, Sobhraj was sent back to Paris.

Notably, a report by BBC citing criticsalleges that hedeliberately escaped towards the end of his 10-year sentence so that he could be re-captured and face additional charges to avoid extradition to Thailand.

How did he end up in Nepal?

In 2003, he resurfaced and was arrested in a casino in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu and was subsequently convicted for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich which he allegedly committed in 1975. According to reports, Bronzich’s body was found in a wheat field near the capital city, however, Sobhraj denied these allegations, while his lawyers said that the charge against him was based on an assumption.

Several years later, he was also convicted of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere and has been in Kathmandu’s Central Jail since. In 2008, Sobhraj married Nihita Biswas, who is reportedly 44 years his junior and the daughter of his Nepalese lawyer.

After serving 19 years out of his 20-year sentence, on Wednesday, the apex court of Nepal led by the bench of Justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha, said that he should be released because of his age as well as health conditions. In 2017, Sobhraj also underwent open-heart surgery

“Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner’s human rights,” said a copy of the verdict, seen by AFP. It added, “If there is not any other pending cases against him to keep him in the prison, this court orders his release by today and … the return to his country within 15 days.”

“The regulation on prison management envisions a waiver of up to 75 per cent of the jail term of the prisoners over 65 years of age and with good conduct,” reads the verdict as quoted by The Kathmandu Post. This was done citingprovisions of Clause 12 (1) of the Senior Citizens Act 2063. According to a part of theclause that sayssenior citizens can get a waiver of a sentence not exceeding 75 per cent of those who have completed 75 years of age.

Sobhraj's story has arguably intrigued many, last year, BBC and Netflix jointly produced an eight-episodemini-series based on his lifenamed after named his moniker' The Serpent'. This was in addition to at least three books written about his life including, "Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj" (1979), "On the Trail of the Serpent: The Epic Hunt for the Bikini Killer" (2021), and so on.

(With inputs from agencies)

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