Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 14:

The Bhaktapur District Court (BDC) and Bhaktapur District Police Office (BDPO) today told the Kathmandu District Court (KDC) that it could not locate the case-file registered against international serial killer Charles Sobhraj Gurumukh, alleging him of killing Connie Jo Bronich of Santa Cruz, California, in 1975. Sobhraj is facing charges at the KDC in connection with his involvement in killing Laurent Ormond Carrierre from Monitoba, Canada, in Nepal in 1975.

According to an official of the KDC, the BDC told the KDC that it did not find a file registered against Sobhraj despite officials having searching for it since Sobhraj was arrested in September last year. The Bhaktapur District Police Office also forwarded a letter to the KDC stating it, too, had no such file with it.

'Though the record shows that a case was registered in 1975, we cannot locate the file,' the letter forwarded by the BDC stated. KDC Judge Om Prakash Mishra told The Himalayan Times that unless the case filed at the BDC is found there is no possibility of deciding the case which is sub-judice at the KDC. 'Unless the case is found, there are difficulties in scheduling the case for a final hearing,' he said. The KDC is hopeful of finding evidences in the file. Signature expert of the Science Laboratory of the Police Headquarters, Udayajung Bahadur Rana, recently told the KDC that Sobhraj might be involved in the crime in 1975. He claimed that the signatures by Henricus Bintanja in 1975 and the current signature of Sobhraj tally.

Sobhraj entered Nepal as a Dutch national, Henricus Bintanja, using a passport bearing the number S 428929 in 1975 and had been staying at Hotel Malla and Soaltee Oberoi. In 2003, he again entered Nepal with another passport in the name of Charles Sobhraj Gurumukh. Sobhraj is currently in central jail.