Serial Killer Charles Sobhraj to be released from Nepal prison

Kathmandu: A convicted killer, Charles Sobhraj  who was responsible for a series of murders in the 1970s and 1980s, is scheduled to be freed today after nearly 20 years in prison in Nepal.

Sobhraj, 78, a French national, is suspected of killing more than 20 western backpackers, usually by drugging their food or drink and then robbing them.

In 1970, Sobhraj murdered 15 to 20 women by drugging them in Thailand. And some of them turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya.

However, in India he gave sweets to the security guards and then managed to break out of the high security in Tihar Jail in the mid 1980’s. He was later caught and jailed until 1997.

He had been in a high-security jail in Kathmandu since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.

Nepal’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered his release from prison, where he has served 19 years of his 20-year sentenc.

Sobhraj was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother. Associates have described him as a con artist, a seducer, a robber and a murderer.