It’s a last call for the Serpent Killer

Dec 19:  Law is supreme and nobody is above it. This ‘power of justice’ has repeatedly been shown at different span of time by the different courts whether in India or anywhere in the world. There are numerous cases when high-profile people, who understood law and order in their pocket, have been convicted and punished by the court. People, who hoodwink law for long, sooner or later come in its grip.

This time it is Charles Shobhraj who has been beaten by the stick of law. Now it is to see whether he would be freed or seen the door of prison in perpetuity (life term) by the Apex Court in Nepal.

Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj notoriously nicknamed as the “Serpent” and the “bikini killer” for his skills in deception and evasion.

Sobhraj, who is half-Vietnamese and half-Indian (born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother); is basically a French citizen. His name is associated to murder of at least 12 travelers during 1970s in India, Thailand and Nepal.

Sobhraj was arrested three years ago in Nepal and had been awarded life term imprisonment by the lower court of the country on August 20, 2004 on the charge of murder of Connie Jo Bronzich, whose body was found near Kathmandu airport in 1975.

He claims that he had no connection with the murder of Connie Jo Bronzich and against the Kathmandu district court’s order, he appealed to the Apex Court.

Earlier in the 17-page long written statement to the Supreme Court he claimed that he had no connection with the murder of American citizen. He said that his conviction was based on baseless news paper reports and unproven documents even the prosecution could not produce a single eye witness.

His lawyer said that charge against him was based on assumption. “There is no proof against him,” said Basanta Ram Bhadari.

Apart from this particular case he is also linked to the murder of at least 12 people around Asia earning him the dubious name “ Bikini killer.”

The 63-year old fraud-king has multiple of complaints against police claiming that a section of media in Nepal was mobilized with fake information to create a climate of prejudice and discrimination against him which amounted to persecution rather than prosecution.

Once Sobhraj was caught by the Delhi police but was managed to escape from Tihar jail; but finally was caught in the Nepal where the police arrested him from Casino Royale near Royal Palace in Kathmandu on August 2003.

For long he has been managed to hoodwink the law, now it is interesting to see him whether this man mislead the Nepalese law or the law teaches him a lesson.