On Wednesday, the Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the release of ‘Bikini Killer’ Charles Sobhraj, who was caught in Goa in 1986 at the famous restaurant, 'O Coqueiro' in Porvorim, North Goa. The legal team claimed that he should be given concession due to his good behavior and age, 78.
In Nepal, Sobhraj was serving imprisonment for killing an American tourist and Canadian backpacker. Sobhraj has been linked to killing more than 20 people and also drugging, burning and strangling victims.
CHARLES SOBHRAJ ARREST IN GOA
Interestingly, when Sobhraj was caught in India by the Indian authorities. He was serving his sentence at Tihar jail, New Delhi. During his tenth year of sentence, he threw a party on the pretext of his birthday. He ended up drugging the inmates and the guards of the jail.
After escaping the jail, he came to Goa where he was caught while having a a tempting meal of Cafreal and stuffed crabs.
A ROPE TO TIE CHARLES SOBHRAJ
Peter Fernandes, who was working as assistant cook at 'O Coqueiro' and just four months into the job, said Sobhraj was arrested at around 9.30 pm.
He remembers the Bombay policemen, one of them the famous Inspector Madhukar Zende, asking for a rope to tie Sobhraj before taking him away. Peter, who was then 18 years of age, said he had to give them a rope used to draw water from a well.
A FILMY SCENE
Fernandes recalls that the entire scene of his arrest was shot on camera by the videographer who was there to shoot a wedding on April 6, 1986, the day of Sobhraj's arrest.
The next day the news of Sobhraj arrest in Porvorim was all over the newspapers, the only means of information for Goans in those days when words like the internet and social media were not even heard.
READING NEWSPAPERS AND SIPPING BEERS
According to an old staffer at the restaurant, who left the place at 7' o'clock on the day of the arrest of the dreaded criminal, the latter had even threatened a staff member over some issue of serving.
Sobhraj, who at one point stayed in a rented place at Khobra Wado in Calangute, was a regular visitor to O Coqueiro. He would sit at the restaurant for hours reading newspapers and sipping beers. He would go back in the afternoon and return in the evening on most occasions.
CASES, MURDERS AND KILLING
In Nepal, Charles Sobhraj, admitted to the crimes he committed and was convicted and was in the Kathmandu Central Jail 2003 for killing two North American tourists.