Kathmandu:

Born in 1944 to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, French national Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj is blamed for numerous crimes he allegedly committed world over. He

has escaped from jails five times — from Afghanistan, France, Greece, Iran and India, the last breakout from Tihar at the end of a jail term.

It was a shock, particularly to those who have followed his trials and trails closely, to hear that the Nepali police had nabbed him. He was not only caught, but the court also convicted him for the murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Ormond Carrierre to a 20-year jail term.

Sobhraj was arrested on September 19, 2003 following a report in The Himalayan Times, which said in its front page that the Serpent was seen in the Capital. Charles Shobhraj Aparadh Ra Sajaya (Charles Shobhraj Crime and Punishment) by Anantaraj Luitel and Bikash Bhattrai has detailed the reports that followed his trial and subsequent conviction.

Though a good effort, it would have been better on the authors’ parts to have done deeper research for their book.

The book has been divided into four chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of Sobhraj. First chapter ‘Incident and Reality’ describes of how Sobhraj murdered of Connie Jo Bronzich and Laurent Armand Currierie. The authors’ take has a tinge of fiction to it.

The authors have credited the movie The Serpentine and book The Life and Crimes of Charles by Richard Nevill and Julie Clarke as references. Parts of reports and books are given as footnotes making it more credible.

Sobhraj as a person and his crimes have been mentioned in the next chapter, which acts like a window into his life. He seems to be mentally sick because of his unstable family background — his father, an Indian businessman who walked out after his birth, and mother married to a French soldier.

Third chapter is a compilation of all the charge sheets against Sobhraj in the court, police reports, his explanations and pleas, defendant’s version of the case and courts’ verdicts. No person could have such reach to the original documents, but Luitel and Bhattarai, both being influential reporters of national dailies The Himalayan Times and Nepal Samachar Patra respectively, have managed to collect the documents from the courts, which make a good resource for those who want to know this issue deeply.

The case has been viewed through the eye’s of three legal experts — criminologist Ranjit Bhakta Pradhanag, president Nepal Bar Association Shambhu Thapa, and Sobhraj’s lawyer Basanta Ram Bhandari.

The defendant blames the court’s verdict as being defective as it was done without any study. He says the court’s decision was flawed because the accused was convicted simply by relying modus operandi while the murder was not established. However, senior advocates Pradhanang and Thapa argue that modus operandi itself has been taken as evidence albeit it has been applied for first time in Nepal.

As the book details Sobhraj’s trial in Nepal and his conviction, the book is valuable to all who are interested in the crimes of the man also known as the Bikini Killer.