No relief for Sobhraj

Monday, August 11, 2008 at 4:08 am

Nepal’s Supreme Court today (August 10) failed to pronounce its verdict on the appeal of Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj, the criminal mastermind who has been serving life term in Kathmandu’s Central Jail in connection with the murder of an American tourist in the Himalayan state three decades ago.

A joint bench of justices Min Bahadur Raymajhi and Kalyan Shrestha today heard the appeal of Sobhraj against the verdict of the Kathmandu District Court, which had sentenced him to life imprisonment in July 2004 on charges of murdering the American tourist. However, the top court did not give any verdict and the hearing on the case has been continued, a court official said.

He said the hearing could not be completed today as there was another important case pending in the court for immediate attention. The court will give another appropriate time to continue the hearing, the official added. Nicknamed the ‘Bikini killer’ and ‘Serpent’ Sobhraj has been accused of luring young women and killing many of them.

The 64-year-old celebrity criminal, who has been splashed in the international media recently for his “engagement” to a Nepali girl Nihita Bishwas, was arrested from a Kathmandu casino in September 2003. Sobhraj’s fiance was present in the court during the one-and-half-hour-long hearing. Sobhraj, who has pleaded innocence, was brought to the court amid tight security, with large number of mediapersons keeping an eye on the hearing.

During the hearing, lawyers claimed that Sobhraj was innocent. A team of lawyers, including advocate Basanta Ram Bhandrai, argued that the murder charges was false since the case was based on a forged photocopy of a hotel register alleging that it matches his current hand writing. The charges against Sobhraj cannot be proved on these basis as these proofs do not have any real ground, the lawyers argued.

The criminal mastermind hopes that he will be released soon and go to Paris, where he plans to wed his new found love Nihita. Sobhraj has claimed that he never visited Nepal before 2003, when he was arrested from a Kathmandu casino. The jail authorities in Nepal have tightened security for the celebrity criminal after the disclosure of his engagement to the Nepal beauty attracted international media attention.

Sobhraj’s flame Nihita had earlier claimed that the jail administration brought their “secret” relationship to the limelight to defame her after she tried to expose the wrongdoings within the jail. Nihita was confident that her lover will be released after the final hearing in the Supreme Court and they would fly to Paris to start a new life.

(With inputs from PTI)

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

No relief for Sobhraj

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