Sobhraj to sue Dhondy

Within 48 hours of launching his new book, The Bikini Murders in New Delhi, author and screenplay writer Farrukh Dhondy is all set to get the kind of controversy needed to make the book a bestseller.
His ���old friend��� Charles Sobhraj, who according to media reports is the prototype of the Saigon-born hero in Dhondy���s book, is readying to sue the author.(Watch)
���My French and British lawyers are reading the book,��� said Sobhraj from Kathmandu���s Central Jail, where he is serving a life sentence for the murdering an American tourist in 1975.
���We would like to sue the publishers, Harper Collins, in London though the book was published by Harper Collins India, since then the damages are going to be substantially higher.���
The 64-year-old, who is expecting his appeal against the verdict to be resolved in his favour by Nepal���s Supreme Court by this year, also rubbishes Dhondy���s claim that he knew Sobhraj, who became a kind of cult figure in the 1970s for his audacious crimes in over a dozen countries, well enough to write his biography.
���Dhondy was just a middle man who was trying to make money by introducing me to filmmakers,��� he said. Sobhraj claims Dhondy introduced him to filmmakers Shekhar Kapur and Ismail Merchant to make biopics on him but the deals fell through due to his insistence on certain matters.
���Anybody can make money by claiming to write a book on Charles Sobhraj,��� he said dismissively. ���Dhondy is also trying to do it. He never knew me well as he is implying, much of what he tells the media is gleaned from the media itself.���
As an example, Sobhraj enumerates the incident of the Indian Airlines plane hijack from Kathmandu in 1999 which was organised to ensure the release of Masood Azhar, founder of the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed. ���I knew Masood well since he and I shared the same prison section in Tihar,��� Sobhraj said. ���But I never rescued him from goons.��� IANS