Sobhraj’s signature matches Bintanja’s: Expert

Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 23:

Signature expert of the science laboratory of police headquarters, Udayajung Bahadur Rana, today told the Kathmandu District Court that the suspected international serial killer Charles Sobhraj Gurumukh might be involved in committing a crime in Nepal in 1975.

Claiming that the signatures of Henricus Bintanja in 1975 and current signature of Sobhraj are similar in nature, he hinted at Sobhraj’s involvement in killing of two foreigners.

Providing his explanation before the single Bench of judge Bishowmbar Prasad Shrestha, Rana told the court that there was similarity between the signatures of Bintanja in 1975 and Sobhraj after he entered Nepal in 2003.

Rana came to this conclusion by comparing the signatures recorded in the registration card of Hotel Malla and Soaltee Oberoi in 1975 with the current signature according to his French passport with number O2YII8667.

Rana furnished his explanation before the court regarding the fake passport case filed by the Department of Immigration in September 2003. “There are similar characteristics in both the signatures, thus the probability of same authorship cannot be ruled out,” he said while responding to 13 questions asked by a court official and also faced cross-examination by Sobhraj’s lawyer Basantaram Bhandari.

While answering advocate Bhandari’s question, Rana said that he had compared Sobhraj’s signature with Bintanja’s signatures from the photocopy of the hotel’s guest cards. Police also produced Sobhraj before the court today.

Sobhraj entered Nepal as a Dutch national, Henricus Bintanja, using a passport bearing the number S428929 in 1975 and stayed at Hotel Malla and Soaltee Oberoi.

Immediately after his arrest in Kathmandu in September 2003, the Department of Immigration had filed the fake passport case against Sobhraj at the Kathmandu District Court. Sobhraj has been facing a charge in the Kathmandu District Court in connection with his involvement in the killing of Connie Jo Bronzich of Santa Cruz, California and Laurent Ormond Carrierre from Monitoba, Canada, in Nepal in 1975.