Serpent killer a.k.a bikini killer a.k.a Sobhraj ordered to be released: Who is he

Kathmandu, Dec 21: The bikini killer also known as Charles Sobhraj was freed from a Nepal court on the basis of a legal provision that says prisoners with good character and who have completed 75 per cent of their jail term can be released.

According to a report in the Kathmandu Post, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the release of the serial killer from France after he spent nearly two decades in Jail.

Also known as the serpent killer, Sobhraj was released on the grounds of old age. He has been in a jail in Nepal on the charge of murdering two American tourists. The court said that the 78 year old should be freed as he has already completed 95 per cent of his jail term.

The verdict comes amidst the lawyers of Sobhraj repeatedly demanding clemency. They have demanded in various petitions that Sobhraj be given clemency and provisions of Clause 12(1) of the Senior Citizens Act 2063 were also cited according to the report.

The court further ordered the government to make arrangements to repatriate Sobhraj to his home country within 15 days unless he had to be kept in jail for another offence, the Himalayan Times reported. The serpent killer wanted for crimes in different parts of the world was convicted for killing American citizen Connie Jo Boronzich and his Canadian girlfriend, Laurent Carriere in 1975.

Sobhraj was arrested on September 19 2003 and was later awarded a life term which would end on September 18 2024. During the 1970s the French national with a Vietnamese and Indian parentage committed a series of crimes including murders across Asia. He has been implicated in over 20 killings and has served 21 years in an India jail for poisoning a French tourist and killing an Israeli national, the Kathmandu Post reported.

He was awarded a jail term of 20 years in 2014 after he was found guilty of a second murder of a Canadian tourist Laurent Carriere who he had murdered in 1975. He was then spotted at a casino in Kathmandu in 2004, following which he was arrested.