Charles Sobhraj's links with India as French serial killer walks free; All you must know

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj was released from Kathmandu Central Jail on the orders of Nepal's Supreme Court on Friday, December 23, after serving 19 years in jail on murder charges. However, it is important to note that the Frenchman who was serving a life-term at a jail in Nepal also had several links with India. 

Sobhraj has Indian as well as Vietnamese parentage. The 78-year-old serial killer, who is also termed to be a con artist, a robber and a murderer, was born to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother. A few media reports also suggest that the Frenchman was also jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in Delhi in 1976. 

Following his arrest in 1976, Sobhraj, who was also wanted in Thailand, successfully fled from India’s Tihar jail in 1986 after drugging the prison authorities. He was, however, nabbed by the police in Goa a few days later. He was jailed in India until 1997 when he returned to France, but resurfaced in Nepal six years later in 2003 and was arrested.

Charles Sobhraj released from Nepal jail 

Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer responsible for a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, was released from jail in Nepal on December 23. His release came after the Supreme Court of Nepal on Wednesday, December 21, ordered his release on the grounds of his age. 

Sobhraj was lodged at a jail in Nepal since 2003 on charges of murdering two foreign tourists. Giving his release orders, the top court also ordered that the French serial killer should be immediately 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 as "the Bikini Killer", Sobhraj 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.

Image: ANI