Nihita Biswas

Kathmandu, July 7 (PTI): Charles Sobhraj, serving a life term in Nepal for murder, may be using his new-found love to cosy up to Maoists to facilitate his early release from the central jail here.

Nicknamed the “Bikini Killer” and “Serpent” by the tabloid press, Sobhraj was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Nepalese district court in July 2004 on charges of murdering an American and a Canadian tourist in Kathmandu in 1975.

Sobhraj recently appointed his new-found love Nihita Biswas’s mother, Sakuntala Thapa as his lawyer, the Himalayan Times quoted sources as saying.

Sakuntala, a human rights activist who switched from the CPN-UML to the Maoist camp, is said to be close to former physical planning minister Hisila Yami, the wife of Maoists leader Baburam Bhattarai.

Sobhraj is trying to build bridges with the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which emerged as the single largest party in the April 10 constitutional assembly polls. The party is set to form a new government in the country, the Kathmandu-based daily said.

Sakuntala is the legal adviser for the Melamchi drinking water project, which comes under the ministry of physical planning and works led by Yami, according to a lawyer.

Sakuntala is a candidate of the combined Left parties for the post of vice-chairperson for the Nepal bar association election due on July 12, sources said.

Sobhraj’s reported affair and his “engagement” to Nihita have grabbed media attention in the subcontinent. The 20-year-old woman has defended Sobhraj and blamed the media for projecting her romantic interest“in a bad light”.

Now a college girl turned celebrity, Nihita describes Sobhraj as a caring man.

She met the international fugitive in Kathmandu’s central jail while he was looking for an interpreter. She said she had been attracted to him because of his humbleness.

Even if he is released from jail, Sobhraj cannot marry her in Nepal as local laws prohibit marriage if the age difference between the man and woman is more than 20 years. Sobhraj is 64.

After learning that marriage to Sobhraj could land them both in jail, Nihita is planning to wed Sobhraj in France.

Legal experts say Sakuntala’s political links will have no impact on Sobhraj’s murder case. Whether she has political connections or not doesn’t make any difference in the judgment, said supreme court lawyer Dinesh Tripathi.

The supreme court is set for a final hearing on Sobhraj’s appeal in the next few days, court sources said.

The “bikini killer” hopes that he will be released soon. He claims that there was no concrete evidence to convict him in the three decade-old murder case.