Who Is 'the Serpent'? Serial Killer Charles Sobhraj Returns To France: Find the details here

The police believe that the serpent, the convicted killer who arrived in France on the 23rd of December after being behind bars in Nepal for nearly two decades, has murdered more than 20 western travelers on the "hippie trail" through Asia in the 1970s and 1980s.  Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the release of Sobhraj, 

Charles Sobhraj also known as the "bikini killer" was released on court's order earlier this week on health grounds in Thailand. 

The Serial killer had been held in a high-security prison in Nepal since 2003. He was arrested in 1975 on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich.

Not only that but later he was later found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere. He served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.

Sobhraj claimed on his flight out of Nepal that he was not guilty of murdering Bronzich and Carriere and that the case against him was built on fake documents.

"I have a lot to do. I have to sue a lot of people,"  Sobhraj said.

Sobhraj, 78, is described as a con artist, a seducer, a robber, and a murderer.

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Know the Serpent

• Charles Sobhraj was born in Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj on  6 April 1944.
• He is an Indian-Vietnamese serial killer, fraudster, and thief.
• Popularly known as the Serpent, due to "his snake-like ability to avoid detection by authorities" Charles preyed on Western tourists in the 1970s who were traveling on the hippie trail of South Asia.

• He was also  known as the Bikini Killer due to the attire of several of his victims and  as well as the Splitting   

• He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997 after which he was released and returned to France.
• Sobhraj was arrested, tried, and given a life sentence in 2003 when he went to Nepal.
• The Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age On 21 December 2022.
• After he had served 19 years of his prison term, on 23 December, he was released and deported to France.

Charles Sobhraj: Early And Personal Life 

• Son of an Indian Taylor and Moneylender named Sobhraj Hatchard and mother Tran Loang Phu/Song who was a bar hostess and shop assistant was living with his mother after his parents separated.
• Adopted by his mother's boyfriend Alphonse Darreau, a French Army Officer who was a very kind father to him, Charles felt neglected by his parents when they had their own children.
• Later in Turkey and Greece, his half-brother Andre also got involved with the Serpent's crimes and eventually got arrested in Greece. 
• After Charles was sent to prison in Poissy he got abandoned by his family 
• Charles had many relationships, his last and current one is with Nikita Biswas who is the daughter of his lawyer.
• Nihita came as a translator to the Nepalese jail and the authorities declared that they married in jail but later dismissed saying they performed the tika ceremony as a part of Bada Dashami.

Charles Sobhraj: Portrayal in Media

Charles has been the subject of four biographies, three documentaries, a Bollywood film titled Main Aur Charles, and the 2021 eight-part BBC/Netflix drama series The Serpent

• Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson
•  The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (1980) by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke,
•  The section titled "The Bikini Murders" by Noel Barber in the Reader's Digest collection, 
• Great Cases of Interpol (1982). 
• Neville and Clarke's book was the basis for a 1989 made-for-TV film, Shadow of the Cobra.
• The 2015 Hindi film Main Aur Charles, directed by Prawaal Raman and Cyznoure Network, is reportedly based on Charles Sobhraj's escape from Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
• An eight-part BBC-commissioned miniseries called The Serpent was broadcast in the UK in January 2021, starring Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj, before being streamed on Netflix in April 2021.

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