Charles Sobhraj: The convicted killer who once staged a Tihar jailbreak and now roams free in France

They referred to him as The Serpent. A man with numerous aliases, Charles Sobhraj glided through nations, evading law enforcement and trapping victims in his network of deception. He was captivating, sophisticated, and dangerous. His life and offenses have motivated books and documentaries. Now, Netflix’s newest drama Black Warrantrevives him on screen. The series, narrated from the perspective of novice jailer Sunil Gupta, delves into the harsh truths of Delhi’s Tihar Jail, featuring actor Sidhant Gupta portraying the notorious serial killer.

In 1970s Bangkok, two Dutch travelers, Henk Bintanja and Cornelia Hemker, became fascinated by a gem merchant called Alaian Gautier. They did not realize that Gautier was merely one of the several aliases used by Charles Sobhraj. Days later, their motionless remains — choked and charred — were found along the roadside close to Ayutthaya, approximately 80 km north of Bangkok.

Nevertheless, when officials finally assembled the details of the crime, Sobhraj had disappeared.

This horrific incident was merely one part of a life immersed in criminal activities. Born in 1944 in Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), Sobhraj’s formative years were marked by a mix of neglect. His father abandoned him during his childhood, and his Vietnamese mother later wed a Frenchman. Being a mixed-race child, Sobhraj encountered prejudice and isolation. By the time he was a teenager, he engaged in minor offenses.

Over time, his aspirations for crime expanded.

Following multiple periods in juvenile facilities and prisons in France, he broadened his activities throughout Europe and Asia, engaging in robberies, vehicle thefts, and smuggling. His knack for manipulation, charisma, and ultimately fitting in turned him into a formidable con artist.

A short detention in Delhi during an attempt to rob a jewelry shop didn’t hinder him either. He successfully obtained bail and quickly escaped to Kabul, leaving Compagnon and their daughter behind, who later returned to France. Sobhraj evaded capture for the subsequent two years, traveling through Turkey, Greece, and Thailand.

During the 1970s, Sobhraj targeted the ‘Hippie Trail’, a favored path for Western travelers with backpacks journeying through South Asia. Proficient in several languages and armed with a stash of counterfeit passports, he targeted unsuspecting young travelers. He would make friends with them, frequently providing food or beverages mixed with poison. Once rendered helpless, his victims became simple prey for theft or killing.

His biographers state that Sobhraj admitted to committing at least 12 murders from 1972 to 1976, although he subsequently retracted these confessions. Although he admits to drugging and robbing his victims, he now claims he is not accountable for any murders. The actual count of his victims is still unknown, but he was found guilty of merely two murders. Numerous victims of his were allegedly overdosed, strangled, drowned, or burned.

Sobhraj returned to India in 1975, where he encountered two significant individuals in his life: Marie-Andrée Leclerc, a Canadian woman who would later become his second wife, and Ajay Chowdhury, his partner in crime. The group initiated a series of killings and robberies. One of Sobhraj’s earliest identified victims was Teresa Knowlton, a 21-year-old whose corpse was found drifting in Pattaya, clad in a bikini. Vitali Hakim tracked her, with his charred remains found by the roadside. When Hakim’s girlfriend went looking for him, she also became a target for Sobhraj, her lifeless form eerily drifting in the water, similarly wearing a bikini.

After murdering the Dutch duo Henk and Cornelia in Bangkok, Sobhraj and Leclerc utilized their passports to enter Nepal, where they killed two additional tourists—Laurent Carrière and Connie Jo Bronzich—before escaping to Thailand. Disguised as jewel traders, Sobhraj and Leclerc worked in Malaysia alongside Chowdhury, who vanished under mysterious circumstances not long after. Numerous people think Sobhraj planned the assassination of Chowdhury.

In 1976, Sobhraj came back to India. At this point, the “bikini killer” faced an international arrest warrant. He made a blunder when he misjudged the dosage while sedating a group of French tourists in Delhi. He was later apprehended and incarcerated in Tihar Jail for 12 years. He was additionally accused of murdering another French tourist and an Israeli individual, charges that were subsequently overturned.

Even behind bars, his manipulative charm did not fade. He bribed guards and lived in relative comfort. But in 1986, Sobhraj orchestrated a dramatic escape from the 271-acre Tihar Jail. He faked a birthday celebration, feeding drugged food to the jail staff and walked out. The move, many experts believe, was calculated to avoid extradition to Thailand, where he faced a possible death sentence.

Following the escape, he concealed himself in plain view and was subsequently apprehended in Goa. Twenty years following his first arrest, Sobhraj was released. He came back to France and lived a peaceful life.

However, it won’t last long.

Sobhraj reemerged in the public eye in 2003 when he mysteriously returned to Nepal, a nation where he remained a murder suspect. Detained in Kathmandu, he was found guilty of the 1975 murders of Laurent Carrière and Connie Jo Bronzich and given a life sentence. For almost twenty years, Sobhraj stayed imprisoned in Nepal.

In 2022, citing his old age and deteriorating health, Nepalese officials set him free. On December 23, 2022, the cunning offender came back to France as a liberated individual. Crime aficionados globally persist in discussing unresolved issues and conjecturing about the entirety of his actions. Nonetheless, the real significance of Sobhraj’s tale rests in the lives that were eternally taken, his alleged victims. Some were recalled, their tales shared, while others remained unknown, their destinies likely understood only by The Serpent.