![]() She recalls how late author Khushwant Singh had told her that while it is an interestingproject to work on, she had to be very careful. He said that we would do every day (the sit-down session where he would narrate his life). He (NM Ghatate) took permission from the court and then I went and met him, in which we discussed how it (the book) would be done. “At that time, more than 20 years ago, as a young reporter it was an exciting prospect for me. The biography, which was started, never saw the light of day since the central character broke out of prison. Senior journalist Kumkum Chadha, who was approached to write Sobhraj’s biography through his late former lawyer NM Ghatate, recalls her first meeting with Sobhraj and how their twice-a-week meetings gave an insight into the man that he was. “I don’t know what girls found attractive,” he says. The former top cop fails to fathom Charles’ image as a ladies’ man. We got the entire story of their chase from him,” says Kanth. I got him to talk to her, which emotionally charged him, and he started talking. David remembered his wife, who was at that point working in the UK. I offered him the lunch my wife had made, and this made him break down. ![]() One day, I was trying to get David to talk while having lunch in front of him. I used to have lunch that my wife packed. He was also doing the videography of the entire escape. “Charles’ major funding happened through David Richard Hall. It was then that Kanth diverted his attention to his partner-in-crime, Richard Hall. Once he was locked up again, Kanth says Sobhraj didn’t show any sign of physical resistance to investigation. Partly I carried out the investigation there, and partly at Tihar,” Kanth recalls. Then I put him in a newly-built police station in Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area, which had multiple lock-ups in the basement. I took a BSF aircraft and brought him to Delhi. “I had to go all the way to Mumbai to get him back to Delhi. Upon his capture again, the police were doubly cautious while locking him up. The reason why his locations were so open is that he didn’t want to conceal himself,” says Kanth. I had information about him in Mumbai and I knew which route he took to Goa. “The escape took place and he went to Mumbai. Kanth was entrusted with the responsibility of bringing him back to Delhi. We did our homework,” says Kanth.Īfter the Tihar escape, Charles along with David Richard Hall went to Mumbai and then Goa. I never allowed my team to apply third degree or beat him, but psychologically he was made to understand that he was being treated as an ordinary criminal and that he could not bluff me. I was always on a chair or people investigating him would sit onchairs. “The only thing I did was that I did not let him sit on a chair. “He used to get very depressed, worried and anxious if you saw right through his bluff,” he says. Kanth opens up recalling a vulnerable side of Sobhraj. Prawaal Raman, director of the film “Main Aur Charles”, describes the experience of meeting Charles Sobhraj as rather “mundane”. Senior journalist Kumkum Chadha, one of the few members of the press to have known Sobhraj on a one-to-on basis after she was approached byhim through his late lawyer to write his biography, feels a big reason he managed to escape from prison is because the system was corrupt and inefficient. Top cop Amod Kanth, who was then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime (Delhi), says it was made amply clear to Sobhraj that he was being treated as “an ordinary criminal”. After multiple jailbreaks over the years, his final capture, too, was no less dramatic than his life.Ĭinema and tele-series - including the Bollywood attempt “Main Aur Charles” and the new web series “The Serpent” - have not surprisingly set up a picture of awe when it comes to Sobhraj, though people who have met him tend to underplay the glamorising. Reports of his serial killings earned himthe name Bikini Killer, and his cunning disposition fetched him sobriquets as Serpent, Cobra and Snake. ![]() Born to a Vietnamese mother and a Sindhi father, fictional and documentary accounts of his life have often cited a neglected childhood as areason for his subsequent persona. Given the eventful life he led, Sobhraj has automatically drawn the interest of storytellers on screen. Films and series have dwelled upon his run as an alleged serial killer, and accounts describe him as an escape artiste and master of disguises. Known to play around with legal systems the world over as a child would play with his toys, Charles Sobhraj has often been portrayed as one of the most enigmatic criminal masterminds on screen.
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