Notorious 78-year-old ‘serial killer’ leaves for France after being freed from Nepal jail

Sobhraj, labelled ‘The Bikini Killer’ and ‘The Serpent’, left for Paris after clearing immigration

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj sits in an aircraft from Kathmandu to France on 23 December (Atish Patel/AFP via Getty Images)

Notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj, accused of killing a number of western tourists in Asia and commonly referred to as the “bikini killer”, walked free from a Nepal jail on Friday.

The 78-year-old, who was serving a life sentence there, was ordered to be released by a Nepal court on Wednesday on grounds of poor health, good behaviour and having already served most of his sentence.

A French national, Sobhraj was seen in photos flying back to his home country on Friday.

Sobhraj reached Kathmandu airport to board a regular flight to Doha en route to Paris after clearing immigration, said Basudev Ghimire, a Kathmandu airport immigration official.

Wearing a woollen cap and a blue fleece jacket, he was earlier escorted to Nepal’s immigration department by seven police officers after being driven out of Nepal capital Kathmandu’s Central Jail in a cavalcade of police cars.

Sobhraj’s release comes as a shock to many as he had gained infamy after police accused him of a string of murders in the Seventies and Eighties.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj sits in an aircraft from Kathmandu to France on 23 December (AFP via Getty Images)

Sobhraj has also been called the “Bikini Killer” and “The Serpent”, with the latter monicker used as the title of a Netflix series based on his crimes.

Sobhraj was labeled “The Serpent” for his evasion of police and use of disguises.

He is suspected of killing more than 20 Western backpackers on the “hippie trail” through Asia, usually by drugging their food or drink in the course of robbing them.

French serial killer Charles Sobhraj sits in an aircraft departing from Kathmandu to France (AFP via Getty Images)

Having escaped arrest several times, he was locked up in 1975 on charges of killing American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich. While Sobhraj denied charges, he was later found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend Laurent Carriere.

It was believed that Sobhraj would drug his victims before robbing and killing them.

He was also suspected to have killed a group of French nationals in Delhi and six women in Thailand.

Police officers escort Charles Sobhraj, a French national known as 'The Serpent', suspected of killing over 20 Western backpackers across Asia (REUTERS)

He has also in the past broken out of Delhi’s highly secured Tihar jail by poisoning guards and was notorious for his apparent flamboyant lifestyle. When he was in Tihar jail, Sobhraj was reportedly allowed to party during the weekends and was allowed conjugal visits from “fans”.

The true number of victims of Sobhraj’s alleged crimes remains unknown to date, but he remains a peculiar figure in Asia.

He is often described as a con artist, robber and murderer. A statue of him was installed in India’s coastal tourist state Goa.

Additional reporting by agencies