The fate of “bikini killer” Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj will be decided in July when Nepal’s Supreme Court gives its final verdict in the long-pending sensational murder case of an American backpacker in 1975.
Sobhraj was convicted by the Kathmandu district court in 2004 for the murder of American tourist Connie Jo Bronzich in Nepal. The top court has fixed July 14 for giving its ruling in the murder of the American tourist.
The date has been set by a division bench of Justices Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal following the completion of the hearing on the case on Wednesday. The bench has directed the defence lawyers and the prosecutors to furnish their written replies by July 6, according to the court officials.
Nicknamed the “Bikini killer” and “Serpent”, 65-year-old Sobhraj has been accused of luring young women and killing many of them. Sobhraj, who is currently serving 20 years imprisonment after being convicted in the three-decade old murder case, has appealed to the Supreme Court against the verdict. Sobhraj’s case has been pending in the Supreme Court for more than half-a-decade.
It is alleged that Sobhraj escaped arrest in 1975 after committing murders of two foreign tourists, Bronzich and Laurent Armound Carriere (Canadian). According to the police, Sobhraj was arrested from a Kathmandu casino in 2003 when he arrived here for the second time in the cover of a French businessman. The second case involving the murder of the Canadian tourist is pending in Bhaktapur district court against Sobhraj.