Free again, what could Charles Shobhraj be up to now?

Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj has done it again in Nepal jail, proving himself to be a ‘good prisoner’, producing ‘medical papers’ and getting an order from the highest court of the country to be released two years ahead of completing his full 20-year sentence. He has been serving terms for the murders of two tourists, an American and a Canadian, in the mid-1970s. Ageless charmer; ruthless killer Born in 1944 to an Indian father and a French mother, Charles, now 78, looks the same as I had found him in April 1986 when I brought him to Delhi in a chartered aircraft amidst media glare following his sensational Tihar jail escape of March 16, 1986. In preparing his dossier while he was in our custody, his modus operandi and character revealed themselves: a crook, confidence trickster and a heartless, ruthless killer targeting those who trusted him, often forming a ‘family bond’ with women friends who mostly did his bidding. Since 1963 when he landed up in jail in Poissy, near Paris, as a young offender, all through the years he was in Nepal jail and nearly 20 years that he spent in Delhi’s Tihar, Charles has always been playing his game with jail authorities and inmates while being in complete control of the situation. On November 1, 1971, Charles was arrested in Delhi. He was found travelling without a passport. He feigned illness and when he was taken to the Wellington Hospital for treatment, he hoodwinked the police and escaped. He was caught again in India but managed to secure bail in 1973 through his father, and kept travelling using forged passports, making new friends and forging ‘families’ with foreign tourists, drugging and killing at least 22 known persons, becoming the most wanted person in the Interpol list in India, France, Afghanistan, Greece, Turkey, Thailand and Nepal. From June 6, 1976, when he was caught by Delhi Police for drugging his foreigner friends who were staying with him at YMCA Hostel and killing one of them, he remained in jail for nearly 10 years before escaping in March 1986. The Don of Tihar During the 10 years in Tihar, he took lessons from another high-profile criminal of a notorious bank van robbery-murder case. Ironically, Charles became one of the most influential inmates who fought for human rights of the detenus while freely terrorising and bribing jail authorities. In 1985, after having lost his petition in the Delhi high court against his extradition to Thailand for the murder of several tourists that had the evidence and stamp of his style, he got restless. medium nocaption96432859 Scared of facing the death sentence, he along with some notorious undertrial criminals meticulously set in motion the most devious escape plan from Tihar jail. He helped David Richard Hall, a British citizen and a creative artist, who was in Tihar jail in a drug case and was desperate to get out, get bail through a jail doctor and false medical papers. Following his release, David, along with Raju Bhatnagar, a notorious kidnapper, Rajender Sethia, a high-profile businessman-prisoner, and several Britishers who came all the way from the UK to help Charles and David, planned the grand jail escape with plenty of money flowing. When we took over the case we were aghast to find that all possible rules of the jail manual had been broken by Charles and his friends in Tihar, which was like his fiefdom. Numerous jail officials were operating at his beck and call, all freedom and facilities being available to him or to any of his friends. He not only located himself and his escapee-conspirators according to his design, he was able to get everything he wanted including the weapon he carried during the escape, huge quantity of drugs he used for stupefying a large number of jail officials and policemen on duty; even his girlfriend was allowed inside for romantic escapades. On March 16, all officials were fed custard and other food laced with the sleeping drug Larpose, becoming totally unconscious and facilitating the escape which was being photographed by David Hall. We recovered the photographs and used them subsequently. A restless creature of habit The Tihar escape was amongst the most publicised jail breaks in history; but it wasn’t so difficult to recapture Charles Sobhraj since his habits were well known. Charles was cornered at O’ Coquerio at Porvorim in Goa and taken to Bombay from where we brought him to Delhi. Charles remained in Tihar for more than 10 years, and was finally deported to France as a State Prisoner in 1997. The restless maverick that he was, Charles again travelled and got into the trap of Nepal Police in 2003, he was convicted in two murder cases and remained incarcerated for 18 years. It has to be seen what he gets up to now, after being released and deported to France – his second home. Considering all that he did in India and how we got him deported to France 25 years ago with considerable difficulty, he shouldn’t be a welcome tourist in India. The writer is former Director General of Police and is the author of soon to be published book, ‘Khaki on Broken Wings’