'Bikini Killer' Charles Sobhraj leaves Nepal jail: What's next for the Frenchman?

After serial killer Charles Sobhraj, also known as "Bikini Killer", walked free on Friday following an order of the Nepal Supreme Court, Republic TV learnt that the 78-year-old murderer will leave for Doha from Nepal.

Sources say Sobhraj will take a flight to Doha at around 6 pm on Friday and will then be flown to Paris. Sobhraj's lawyer Gopal Shivakoti said there are no cases against his client in France. 

Meanwhile, Sobhraj has been shifted to the jail of the Immigration Department and will stay there till the time he is moved out of Nepal. Even after his release, Sobhraj has not been allowed to meet anyone, including family members, sources say. 

Sobhraj's wife Nihita Biswas was seen waiting outside the Immigration Department office in Kathmandu but was not allowed to meet her husband by prison authorities.

The development comes after the convicted killer, who was responsible for a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from jail in Nepal on Friday.

His release came after the Supreme Court of Nepal on Wednesday, December 21, ordered his release on the grounds of his age and deteriorating health. 

'Health & family' priority for him: Sobhraj's wife 

Nihita Biswas, Charles Sobhraj's wife, said health and family will be a priority for her husband from now. She further said efforts are on to send him back to his family in France. 

"We're trying to send him back to his family in France by evening for security reasons. After heart surgery, he had some issues. He might need another surgery. Health and family are priorities for him now," Charles Sobhraj's wife Nihita Biswas was quoted  saying by news agency ANI. 

Sobhraj is believed to have killed about 15-20 people in the 1970s, after which he spent 21 years in jail in India. He was serving a life term in Kathmandu jail since 2003.  

Charles Sobhraj's time in jail 

Sobhraj was lodged at a jail in Nepal since 2003 on charges of murdering two foreign tourists. Giving his release orders, Nepal's top court also ordered that the French serial killer should be deported within 15 days of his release unless he is wanted in some other case.

His arrest came after he was spotted outside a casino in Nepal's capital Kathmandu and his photograph was published by a newspaper. 

Nicknamed "the Bikini Killer", Sobharaj was serving a life term in the Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 in Nepal.

Following this, he was convicted in 2014 and was given a second life sentence for killing Laurent Carriere, a Canadian citizen.