September 20, 2003	Saturday	Rajab 22, 1424

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: Charles Sobhraj, a notorious criminal accused of the killings of young Western tourists around Asia, was arrested on Friday morning at a casino in Kathmandu and will face charges over a double murder 28 years ago, police said.

Mr Sobhraj, a French national who spent 20 years in a maximum-security prison in India, had been hunted by Nepalese police since a Kathmandu newspaper spotted him this week and splashed his picture, with his trademark beret, on its front page.

Police found Charles Sobhraj, believed to be a compulsive gambler, in the casino of the Yak and Yeti luxury hotel, a police inspector involved in the arrest said.

Police said Charles Sobhraj, infamous for his swapping of identities to travel across borders, pulled the trick again in Nepal, entering the kingdom with a Dutch passport under the name Bintanja Henricus.

Later police found his French passport, Deputy Inspector General of Police Keshav Baral told reporters.

Sobhraj, nicknamed “The Serpent” for his cunning escapes from the law, was charged in Nepal over the 1975 murders of a young Canadian man Laddie DuParr and an American woman Annabella Tremont, whom he met in Kathmandu hippie circles.

Tremont was killed by multiple stab wounds. DuParr’s body was burned and Sobhraj is accused of using his passport to escape to Thailand.

“Necessary legal action will be taken against him as per the criminal laws of Nepal,” Baral said.

Mr Sobhraj will be presented before a judge on Monday, said Shanti Ram Khatiwada, the district court attorney for Kathmandu.—AFP