Enter Charles II?

COMPLICATED legalese and an overenthusiastic media apart, what does Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj want to do now that freedom seems imminent? He gushes: "They want me to go to France. I want to stay on in India forever. I've been here for so many years. All my friends are here. I want to settle down in Pune where my sister lives. Get married to my girlfriend Manbeena Bhullar who is in Chandigarh. Work out my film contract. Launch a magazine. And write a book on Sushil Sharma (the main accused in the Naina Sahni tandoor murder case) who became my friend in jail." A hectic schedule indeed. But one that may remain elusive with the Union Government taking a decision to deport him to France. With the media chronicling his every move ardently, it's been a hectic week for Sobhraj. A release order issued in his favour. A minute's freedom after 20 years in Tihar. Detention by the Foreigners Regional Registration office for not possessing travel documents. His own petition seeking to go to France to conclude a multi-million dollar film contract. And the clearance of the Indian Government's application in a Delhi court to have Sobhraj deported because he is a "threat" to national security.

Yes, the internationally-renowned jailbird who was dubbed 'bikini-killer' by The Bangkok Post more than two decades ago, is stealing headlines yet again. Last week saw aggressive reporters elbowing through crowded courtrooms to snatch a quote. This, even as veteran Sobhraj-followers in the media penned analyses on the man whose biographers have described him as "one of the century's most diabolical killers".

To what end? "I'm hopeful that something will come of all this news. I try to read everything about myself. The Government wants me to go away. But I don't want to go," says the suave 52-year-old Sobhraj. Then why the petition to go to France? And media-savvy Sobhraj suddenly becomes evasive. Turning shifty-eyed behind his natty gold-framed glasses, he mumbles, in a pathetic attempt to look helpless: "Lawyer's advice. I want to complete my film." Does he really? What of his claims of wanting to pen books on Rajiv Gandhi and Kiran Bedi? Sobhraj waves aside the query:

"Yes, Yes. Everything will happen...." And, at his own will if he can help it, he seems to suggest. Like his lawyer for over 10 years, Rajan Bakshi, says: "He knows what he wants. He wants to stay here. For what I don't know. Every time something happens, they'll dump him in jail." Sobhraj probably knows. But that doesn't stop him from playing on the sympathies of the media as a great India-lover. It's hardly surprising therefore that Bakshi brushes aside his sentimental spiel on his attachments with his friends here and guffaws: "Oh! He'll make friends wherever he goes. Sobhraj is a very friendly person!" Indeed. Ask Captain Rathaur, the army officer courtmartialled in the Samba spy scandal, who recently stood surety for Sobhraj in a murder case registered in Thailand. "I got to know Charles in prison. He paid for my daughters' education. I was morally obliged to stand surety for him," he says.

It's this kind of trust and loyalty that Sobhraj has always evoked and manipulated in people. A glib talker, Sobhraj, the illegitimate child of an Indian Sindhi businessman, Hotchand Sobhraj, and his Vietnamese mistress, Noi, would lure tourists into his two-bedroom apartment in Bangkok to drug them and then strip them of their valuables. The fortunate few escaped, others were murdered brutally. One couple, the Henkens, were torched alive.

Drugs, gems, stolen automobiles—Sob-hraj's criminal bio-data has it all. Including the six bikini-clad victims who were dumped into the Thailand seas. "But I have changed now. My career in crime is over." Any takers? Perhaps none. But certainly many who want to hear him and hear about him. And Sobhraj obliges. Never an impolite word to a journalist. Certainly not to the foreign press. Gestures that have left a string of admirers in jail. "He bid his final farewell to us," says Tihar superintendent, Yashpal Garg, almost wistfully.

Whether in a farm in Pune or France, then, Sobhraj will always attract attention. As a French journalist at one of his court hearings said: "Journalists are getting ready for him there!" So, over to France. Maybe he'll be there soon. Maybe not. But, wherever he'll be, he'll be in the limelight.