NAME: Charles Sobhraj

AGE: 60

NATIONALITY: Vietnamese-Indian by birth and French by adoption

CLAIM TO FAME: Serial-murderer-turned-celebrity behind the bars, again

FOR THE rich and famous, it is not easy to remain unnoticed for long, particularly if one is a notorious international criminal too.

Charles Sobhraj, accused of murdering and robbing scores of tourists around Asia, was recently arrested by police from a casino in Kathmandu. Police had started hunting for Sobhraj, 60, a French national who spent 20 years in a prison in India, after an English-language daily published his photograph, claiming that he had arrived there a fortnight ago. Charles Sobhraj told journalists at the court that it was his first trip to Nepal and he was there for research on a television documentary.

Sobhraj, nicknamed as ‘The Serpent’ for his talent at disguise and escape, is wanted in Kathmandu for the murder of two women from the US and Canada in 1975. He had served a 20-year sentence in New Delhi’s Tihar jail for drugging, robbing and killing tourists.

India had deported him to France in 1997, after a 47-day standoff in which French authorities verified his nationality and Indian officials threatened to dump him at the French embassy. For the serial killer, the idea of retiring to Paris and making $15 million for a book and movie deal based on his life made spending more than two decades in an Indian prison worthwhile. He even charged the media for interviews and posed photographs.

Sobhraj, a Vietnamese-Indian by birth and French national by adoption, turned a sentence for homicide in India into almost a life of luxury. He was a con man, jewel thief, drug dealer and murderer, but one who lived a life of adventure and intrigue that made him a media celebrity. Out of his exploits, Charles had made enough money to bribe his captors who provided him with amenities that made life in an Indian prison seem like an extended vacation. For most of his incarceration he had access to typewriters, a television, refrigerator and a large library. That’s in addition to the drugs and food that he used to entertain and control his fellow inmates in the prison that was supposed to be the harshest in India.

Some authorities believe Sobhraj killed more than 20 unsuspecting European and American tourists in the Far East and the subcontinent. Unlike many serial killers, Sobhraj killed for economic and personal gain. He wanted the passports and identity papers of his victims for his jewel and drug smuggling operations. “If I have ever killed, or have ordered killings, then it was purely for reasons of business, just a job, like a general in the army,” Sobhraj told a journalist during his trial in India.

An evil genius, fluent in several languages and able to navigate his way throughout Europe and Asia, Charles Sobhraj remains an enigmatic and interesting figure, though regarded by some as the worst serial killer in Asian history.