The 'Bikini Killer' had done a photoshoot at the gate of Tihar Jail
Charles Sobhraj, famously known as the Bikini Killer, was so clever that he managed to escape from India's most secure prison and after coming out of the prison, he even got his picture taken standing at the prison gate. Sobhraj, who was released from prison in the year 2022, is now living a quiet life in France.
International Thug Charles Sobhraj
If a criminal does not commit another crime after committing one, then it is unlikely that he will be caught by the police or the police will be able to reach him, but it is said that addiction to everything is bad. Something similar is seen in the mentality of a criminal. No matter how clever a criminal is, he can remain silent for a few days or months after committing a crime. After that, he again sets out to commit crimes in the same manner, after committing crimes repeatedly, he leaves some clue of his crimes somewhere or the other.
In 1976, a foreign thief was caught in India on charges of fraud and theft. During police interrogation, the accused revealed several cases of theft and fraud in India. Delhi Police collected evidence in all the cases and gave solid evidence against the thief to the court, on the basis of which the thief was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment.
This thief was none other than the cunning Charles Sobhraj who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail. In 1976, an Israeli tourist Alan Jacob was murdered in Banaras. The police arrested Charles Sobhraj in the murder case. Charles Sobhraj was proven guilty in the Banaras court and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment in the murder case.
But the clever Charles Sobhraj appeals against his sentence in the High Court where he is acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence. Charles Sobhraj is once again released from the court due to the charges not being proved in the case of murder of another tourist, a French citizen.
Based on the sentence given in the 1976 theft case, Charles Sobhraj had to complete his sentence by staying in jail till 1988. He had completed his 10-year sentence while in jail, but during the same time, an application for his extradition from Thailand was filed with the government as he was accused in the case of murder of 6 girls in Thailand. Out of the 6 girls murdered in Thailand, one was a Turkish girl and one was an American woman.
In 1985, the Indian government accepted the Thai government's request for the extradition of Charles Shobhraj. Shobhraj knew very well that the Thai court would sentence him to death for the murder of 6 women, and it would be impossible for him to escape from jail after reaching there. In those days, Charles Shobhraj was lodged in the country's most secure and high-security Tihar Jail in Delhi.
During this time he started planning to escape from the jail. One day in 1986 he managed to escape from the jail, but his escape was due to his clever mind or the negligence of the jail's lazy security personnel. Before escaping from the jail, he got his photo taken in front of the main gate of Tihar Jail, after which he escaped from the jail comfortably.
Killed women in bikinis for drugs and money
In October 1975, the body of a girl wearing a bikini was found on the beach of Pattaya city in Thailand. She was murdered by Charles Sobhraj. After this, a series of finding bodies of girls wearing bikinis started in Thailand. Most of the girls who died were foreigners who were from America, Turkey, Netherlands and Europe. The Thai police found a similarity in all the cases.
On investigation, the police found that drugs were the main reason behind all the murders. The Thai police was about to reach Charles Sobhraj while investigating the murders. Charles Sobhraj was convinced that the Thai police could arrest him anytime in the case of murdering the girls, so he fled from Thailand and came to India. During this time, the Delhi Police arrested him in connection with a theft case in Delhi and sent him to jail.
The beginning of Charles Sobhraj's crime
Charles Sobhraj's full name was Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj Hotchand Bhavnani and he was born on 6 April 1944. Charles Sobhraj's father was a Sindhi who had a clothing business in Vietnam. For business, he opened a clothing shop in Saigon City. During this time, Charles Sobhraj's father had a relationship with a woman working in his shop and that woman gave birth to Charles Sobhraj.
At that time Vietnam was under France and Charles Sobhraj got French citizenship as he was born in Vietnam. After the birth of Charles Sobhraj, his mother married a French soldier. At the age of 18, Charles Sobhraj went to jail for the first time in the capital of France on charges of theft. During this time he came in contact with many vicious criminals imprisoned in the jail. Then Charles Sobhraj left petty theft and started committing big thefts.
During this time, Charles Sobhraj fell in love with a French girl and went to a park to spend time with her. Where the police arrested him with a stolen bike. Charles Sobhraj came to India for the first time in 1970. On his first visit to India, he started selling stolen cars in India while staying in Iran and Pakistan. While living in India, Charles Sobhraj started committing thefts one after the other.
He was first arrested in India in 1971 at Delhi Airport with a bag full of stolen jewellery. His French girlfriend Shotel also helped him a lot in the thefts in India. During their stay in India, a daughter was born to them. A few days after the birth of their daughter, both of them were arrested in Afghanistan on charges of theft, Charles Sobhraj was sent to jail along with his girlfriend Shotel and her daughter.
The daughter was very young, so the government of Afghanistan handed over her daughter to Shotel's parents in France. After being released from jail, Shotel went to France and took her daughter with her and settled in America, far away from Charles Sobhraj. After escaping from the Afghanistan jail, Charles Sobhraj once again came to India. During this time he befriended a French-Canadian girl, but their friendship could not last long and in the year 1975, Charles Sobhraj killed her and fled to Bangkok.
Charles Sobhraj sentenced to life imprisonment in Nepal
After being released from Tihar Jail in Delhi in 1997, Charles Sobhraj returned to his country France and for the next 6 years he lived peacefully without committing any crime. In 2003, Charles Sobhraj came to Nepal once again. In Nepal, he was arrested in a 28-year-old case of murder of two people. In August 2014, the Supreme Court of Nepal convicted Charles Sobhraj in the case of murder of both the foreigners and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment. After being released from Nepal jail in December 2022, Charles Sobhraj is living quietly in France.