Nepal Supreme Court upholds Sobhraj’s conviction

KATHMANDU - Nepal’s Supreme Court Friday upheld the conviction and life imprisonment awarded to Charles Sobhraj in a 35-year-old murder case.

A division bench of Justices Ram Kumar Prasad Shah and Gauri Dhakal upheld the 20-year imprisonment handed over to Sobhraj, The Himalayan Times reported.

The resurrection of the 1975 murder has been probably the most sensational Nepal has ever witnessed.

In December 1975, two badly charred bodies were found in different parts of Kathmandu valley.

The body of the woman, who was first stabbed to death, was identified as that of Connie Jo Bronzich, whose husband and boyfriends had died under violent circumstances in the US.

The second body, that of a male, could not be identified. Police conjectured it could have been that of a Canadian tourist, Laurent Armand Carriere, who had shacked up with Bronzich in Kathmandu.

Police say Sobhraj came to Nepal from Bangkok same year, befriended Bronzich for some gems she had bought in India and killed her.

Sobhraj says he never came to Nepal before 2003, when he arrived as a bona fide entrepreneur to explore various ventures, ranging from making documentaries for his Paris-based Gentleman Films company to starting a mineral water business.

On Sep 17, 16 days after his arrival, a local daily carried his photograph, which alerted the police who traced him to a casino and arrested him.

Initially, police charged him with having come to Nepal in 1975 on a forged passport.

But as the court acquitted him, he was re-arrested from the court premises and charged with the murder of Bronzich.