BENGALURU: “Hello Charles!” “Charles? Who? Are you crazy? I am not Charles.” “You remember I had arrested you in 1971. Your game is up, Charles!” These are the famous lines that could turn a crime thriller into a box office hit. Fifteen minutes after Charles Sobhraj - the international criminal - walked into the O’Coqueiro restaurant in Porvorim at 10.30 pm on April 6, 1986, his game was up. His nemesis, the then senior police inspector, Agripada police station, Mumbai, Madhukar Zende had pinned him down and tied him. His men, in mufti, by then had emptied Charles’ revolver. The police recovered $10,000 bills from Charles’ shoes.
“I told the constables in the escort team to not move out of the vehicle or allow Charles to step out even to attend nature’s call. I had given two empty tins to them for the purpose. They were to take the crook to Mumbai where a special aircraft was sent by the Delhi police to take him to Delhi,” reminisced Zende, now 85, and settled in Singapore.
This was the second time that Zende had arrested Sobhraj after November 1971, when the latter had planned to execute a heist at the Air India cash counter office in the New India Assurance building near Flora Fountain in Mumbai. On a tip-off from a petty thief Ajay Parekh, Zende, who was then an inspector at Gamdevi police station, Mumbai, had arrested him.
“Charles had checked in at the Taj Hotel and his five to six accomplices in different hotels. They had planned to rob the AI cash counter office, when I arrested him near the Taj Hotel on November 11, 1971. We recovered receipts of the hotels where his accomplices were lodged, arrested them and recovered a lot of weapons,” said the retired supercop.
Charles dangerous, crafty, says retd cop
“CHARLES was 28 years old then. He was wearing a full suit that day. After his arrest he told me ‘you have done your work. I will do mine.’ He did not open his mouth thereafter. We handed him over to Delhi police, who wanted him in connection with the Ashok Hotel robbery case in which Charles was involved.
That was the first case against him in India. He made use of the blackouts during the 1971 Bangladesh war and escaped from the hospital after he was lodged in Tihar jail. He had faked some illness to get admitted in the hospital,” said Zende.
“Charles is dangerous. He is crafty and brash with no love for anyone else other than himself. He has no respect for the police or the judiciary. The first time we had arrested him in 1971, he was a petty criminal with the Hotel Ashok robbery and some other theft cases on his resume. In 1986, he had become a hardened criminal and had killed around 20 women,” said the retired cop.
Born in Saigon to an Indian father and a Vietnamese mother, Sobhraj embarked on an international life of crime and ended up in Thailand in 1975. He posed as a gem trader, befriended his victims, many of them Western backpackers on the hippie trail, before drugging, robbing and murdering them.
He was nicknamed ‘Bikini Killer’ because of the attire his victims were found in. After killing them he used their passports for undercover international travel and trade in drugs and precious stones. ‘The Serpent’ was his other nom de guerre for slipping out from under the nose of the police in Thailand. He
went on a killing spree between 1972 and 1976. “Charles can be mistaken for a foreigner or of Oriental origin. He is physically fit, clever, deceptive and ruthless,” Zende said.
About that evening on April 6, 1986, the retired cop, who was awarded the President’s medal for distinguished service, a cash award of Rs 15,000 by the Maharshatra government and “lot of recognition and accolades” from the people, said that he had a premonition that day that something good would happen. “At 5 am on April 6, 1986, I had a dream that I will do some good work. We had information that Charles was in Goa. He had bought a peacock colour Rajdoot motorcycle and
wanted to contact his wife in the USA.
O’Coqueiro restaurant was frequented by foreigners for good food and the international call facility. I went there with a small team of five to six policemen and waited there. At 10.30 pm, two men wearing sun hats walked in and I recognised one of them as Charles. I grabbed him. He was wearing a green shirt and jeans. I wore a red shirt with white collar, which I have preserved and wear it on my birthday on March 4,” added the octogenarian officer. O’Coqueiro restaurant has named one of the delicacies as ‘Zende platter’ in praise of the officer.
On the release of Sobhraj from the Nepal prison, Zende said he wont be surprised if Charles goes
back to crime.