On August 12, Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj (60) was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu district court in a 28-year-old murder case. Lodged in Kathmandu's Central Jail, Sobhraj spends his time reading, talking and sharing jokes with 800 other inmates of the jail. His lawyer, Sanjeev Ghimire, says preparations are afoot to file an appeal against the verdict of the district court.
The case against Sobhraj is complicated. He has been accused of murdering American tourist Connie Joe Bronzich and her Canadian companion, Laurent Carriere, in Sanga area of Bhaktapur district in 1975. Then Sobhraj had allegedly come down to Kathmandu on the passport of Dutch citizen Henricus Bintanja, who was found murdered in Bangkok. The Laurent murder case was dismissed because the police could not trace the files. But the alleged recovery of Laurent's nylon bag from the plush Soaltee Hotel room of Bintanja (allegedly an alias of Sobhraj) was used as evidence against the conman to convict him in the other murder. In other words, the Laurent case became the basis for finding him guilty in the Bronzich murder.
Sobhraj, however, argues that the non-existent Laurent case cannot become the basis of convicting him in the Bronzich murder case. In this exclusive interview to Outlook, Sobhraj gave written replies to questions by Yubaraj Ghimire. The only condition he imposed was that his answers shouldn't be edited.