Kathmandu: Nepal deports French national bikini killer Charles Sobhraj to France

Kathmandu : The Nepal government on Friday evening released famous serial killer Charles Sobhraj from jail and sent him to France after obtaining the necessary immigration clearance. Shobhraj (78), popularly known as ‘Bikini Killer’ and ‘The Serpent’, was released from jail on Friday afternoon under the orders of the Supreme Court of Nepal, after which he was sent to France.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered the release of Sobhraj for different reasons. Heavy security deployment was ensured at the time of his deportation at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday evening. Nepal’s Immigration Department said that he was deported on the condition of not returning to Nepal for the next 10 years.

The government had issued him a travel document before his deportation as he did not have a valid passport. Sobhraj left on a regular Qatar Airlines flight, and will reach Paris after a stopover in Doha. Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Sobhraj, a joint bench of Justices Sapna Pradhan Malla and Til Prasad Shrestha on Wednesday ordered his release, saying arrangements should be made to send the French national back to his country within 15 days. . Sobhraj spent 19 years and two months in the Central Jail in Kathmandu. According to officials, they were to be released on Thursday, but due to some internal process, which involved documents at the immigration department and others, their release became possible on Friday afternoon.

Sobhraj was wanted in Nepal for the 1975 murders of Canadian Lady Dupar and American woman Annabella Tremont, both of whom he had befriended in Kathmandu. Sobhraj was arrested by the Nepal Police in September 2003 from a five-star hotel in Kathmandu. In March 1986, he escaped from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, fearing he would be extradited to Thailand to face charges for the murder of six bikini-clad girls on a beach in Pattaya. Later Sobhraj was arrested again in Goa in April 1986. After his release from prison in 1997, there were reports that he had moved to France. Sobhraj argued in his plea that he has already served 19 years in jail and he is 78 years old. The Kathmandu and Bhaktapur district courts in Nepal found him guilty of killing American and Canadian citizens in 1975. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence awarded to him by the Kathmandu district court in 2010.He also had heart surgery.

Sobhraj repeatedly filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court, demanding that senior citizens above the age of 70 be exempted from prison. They sent such applications, especially around Constitution Day, Democracy Day and Republic Day, in the hope of pardoning the President. Nevertheless, the court dismissed all his writ petitions. Pic Credit: Internet