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Journalism of Courage
To those who have known him personally, Charles Sobhraj appeared conversational and charismatic, almost affable. He had a keen grasp of human nature, and used his charms to control people and situations over his entire storied life. The so-called Bikini Killer committed at least 12 murders, and repeatedly escaped the law with serpentine slipperiness.
But one man, a Mumbai cop named Madhukar Zende, nabbed Sobhraj on two separate occasions. The new Netflix film Inspector Zende, with Manjoj Bajpayee in the titular role, dramatises the policeman’s pursuit of Sobhraj (played by Jim Sarbh) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sobhraj, now 81, was released from a Nepal prison in 2022. He lives in France. Here’s his story.
Difficult childhood
Sobhraj was born to an expatriate Indian moneylender and a Vietnamese woman in French-occupied Saigon in 1944. His birth father left him and his mother when he was just three; his mother then married a French army officer. Charles’ childhood was defined by crises of identity and belonging as he was “shunted back and forth between parents and continents”, according to his biographers Richard Neville and Julie Clarke.
Charles spent most of his adolescence in and out of juvenile offender homes — he was stealing cars, robbing housewives at gunpoint, and mugging people on the street. By his 20s, he was moving between Parisian high society and the underworld, making money through daring burglaries and elaborate scams. During this time, he grew close to Chantal Compagnon, whom he married in 1969.
From early on, Sobhraj displayed little remorse for his actions, Neville and Clarke write. Rather, he saw himself as a victim of an unjust society and wretched fate, with his only way to power, wealth and opulence being the path of crime.
In the 1970s, many Westerners journeyed to the ‘Orient’ to “find themselves” outside the capitalist decadence of their native lands. Hordes of young Europeans came to South and East Asia on shoestring budgets — and it was in the obscurity and transience of the hippie trail that Sobhraj committed his worst crimes, often targeting those who were allured by his magnetism.
In the course of his exploits that included smuggling of gems and narcotics, Sobhraj was arrested multiple times in Athens, Delhi, and Kabul — he got away each time through bribery or audaciously planned escapes, to resume his operations.
After Chantal left Charles, taking their baby along, a young Canadian named Marie-Andrée Leclerc fell for the criminal after meeting him in India. She became his close companion and remained devoted to him despite his addiction to gambling and women. The ability to gain people’s trust and make them want to do things for him remained Charles’ abiding character trait.
In 1975, Sobhraj and Leclerc found themselves in Thailand, where he committed his first confirmed murder. An American woman named Teresa Knowlton was found dead in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand wearing a bikini, the first of similar murders that earned him his name and reputation of the Bikini Killer. He would be accused of killing at least another 11 people in Thailand, Nepal, and India; some estimates put the number of his victims at 30.
In 1976, Sobhraj, along with Leclerc and an Indian accomplice named Ajai Chaudhary alias Mohan Lal, was accused of murdering, robbing, and forging the identity of an Israeli tourist in Varanasi. Like most of his murders, Sobhraj had allegedly killed his victim by poisoning. A trial court convicted him, but he was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court and then the Supreme Court in 1996 after the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
He had been arrested earlier in Delhi for trying to rob an emporium at Hotel Ashoka and a con job in Tilak Nagar among other petty crimes. He was subsequently arrested and sentenced for trying to poison and rob some French tourists.
Why Sobhraj killed so many remains a mystery. Sobhraj has himself claimed that many of the deaths were either accidental drug overdoses or cartel killings. He often used the passport and identities of his victims to travel to multiple countries.
Herman Knippenberg, a Dutch diplomat who was key to uncovering the details of Sobhraj’s murders, told The Guardian in 2020 that he killed his victims because they rejected his criminal entreaties. “In resisting the overtures of Sobhraj,” he said, “they triggered his childhood preoccupation with being rejected”.
Tihar stay, Nepal arrest
In 1976, Thai police issued a warrant against Sobhraj for the murder of six women, all of whom were found dead in bikinis on the beaches of Pattaya. But he was caught in Delhi (by Zende) before Thai authorities could get to him. He was charged with the murder of Frenchman Jean-Luc Solomon and received a 12-year sentence.
Sobhraj lived lavishly in Tihar, bribing guards and befriending prisoners for special treatment. In 1986, he escaped after drugging inmates and guards — but was recaptured in Goa (again by Zende) soon, and had 10 years added to his sentence.
It has been speculated that this was precisely what Sobhraj wanted — he had realised that if released before Thailand’s 20-year statute of limitation expired, he would be deported and would receive the death penalty — and had planned the escape to extend his stay in prison in India.
In 1997, when Sobhraj was finally released, most warrants against him had long expired, and evidence and witnesses long gone. He returned to France, where he sold film rights on his life for $15 million, and charged big money for interviews and photographs.
It was probably hubris that caused Sobhraj to return to Nepal in 2003. It was one of the few countries where he was still wanted, but he made no attempt to keep a low profile. He was arrested after his picture was published in The Himalayan Times. He was convicted of murders he had committed in 2006, and received a 20-year sentence.
This article was originally published in December 2022.
