Charles sobhraj poison of choice8/9/2023 ![]() ![]() “I was convinced that if I sat there long enough, he would eventually appear because Charles loved being around hippies, drink and women. Speaking to MailOnline years later, Zende said: “We spent days looking for him all over Goa but at night I would go to the O’Coquerio restaurant, a popular hippie hangout in Porvorim, Panaji’s then up and coming suburb. Incidentally, Zende was no stranger to Sobhraj, as the sleuth had arrested him once before in Mumbai, in a carjacking case.Īcting on information, Zende led his team to Goa, where Sobhraj was wandering the streets freely. ![]() The person charged with the manhunt was Inspector Madhukar Zende of the Mumbai Police. His escape led to one of the largest manhunts in Indian police history. People said that Sobhraj figured that even if he is caught, the Indian laws would require him to serve out another 10 years, which would make the Thai warrant invalid. As per Thai laws, the sentence would lapse after 20 years. Many believe that he did this to evade his extradition to Thailand. File image/AFPĪfter escaping Tihar, Sobhraj reportedly behaved more like a holidaying student than a desperate prisoner prepared to stop at nothing to evade justice. Goldfinger, Professor Moriarty, move over: Charles Sobhraj has you beat.”Ĭharles Sobhraj’s prison break from Tihar Jail is perhaps one of the most audacious ones in history. The prison break made headlines everywhere, with the Hong Kong-based Asiaweek editorially writing: “Dr No. His smarts came into play when he bundled Anand Swarup, the drugged warder, into the car and as he drove away, letting his uniformed arm hang loosely out of the window, making the sentries believe that nothing was wrong since prison officials were in the car as well. The unsuspecting guards consumed the sweets and promptly fell unconscious, allowing Sobhraj to walk out of India’s most heavily guarded prison unchallenged. His excuse for the sweets was that it was his birthday. He managed to get a drug runner, Richard Hall, to drive into the jail on a Sunday along with a basket of goodies - grapes, apples, chocolates, custard pudding, barfi and petha, all spiked with just the right amount of sedatives. On 16 March 1986, Sobhraj put into action his audacious plan to escape Tihar prison. Therefore, that’s when he plotted a daring escape. As per the law, following the end of his term, Indian authorities were supposed to hand him over to Thai Police where he awaited a death sentence. The crime landed him 12 years in prison and Sobhraj was sent to Tihar Jail. ![]() Three of the students, realising what Sobhraj had done, overpowered him and contacted the police, leading to his capture. However, the drugs took effect more quickly than Sobhraj had anticipated, the students began to fall unconscious. In July of the same year, he then gave the tourists poison pills, telling them it was anti-dysentery medicine. With his charm and ability to manipulate, he got them to accept him as their guide and touched Indian shores in 1976. Struggling to make ends meet, he saw an opportunity with a group of French post-graduate students who were visiting India on a vacation. After leaving a trail of bodies across Asia, earning him the nickname of ‘Bikini Killer’, due to the attire of several of his victims, he made his way to India in 1976. ![]() His modus operandi in most of his crimes was to spike their drinks and kill them, often with women accomplices. Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh aka Charles Sobhraj, born in then-French-occupied Saigon, the son of an Indian businessman and a Vietnamese shop assistant, had earned notoriety, travelling the world and targeting “hippie” travellers - Western tourists backpacking through Asia. The suave and charismatic killer earned even more notoriety and displayed his skills of manipulation and deceit when he broke free of the jail in 1986, launching one of the biggest manhunts in India. Prior to his time in Kathmandu jail, Sobhraj, known as the ‘Bikini Killer’ and ‘The Serpent’ owing to his skill of deception and evasion, also spent time in India’s notorious prison - Tihar Jail in New Delhi - after he was arrested in July of 1976. In 2014, he was convicted of killing Laurent Carriere, a Canadian backpacker, and given another life sentence. The 78-year-old, who was responsible for a string of murders across Asia in the 1970s, was serving a life term in Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 in Nepal. After spending 19 years in a Nepalese prison, Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer portrayed in the Netflix series The Serpent, is set to be freed on health grounds. ![]()
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