Before last week, few in Nepal knew about Nihita Biswas. But as the news of her becoming engaged to imprisoned former crime guru Charles Sobhraj spread like wildfire, the 20-year-old became the quarry of the media at home and abroad.
Journalists, the paparazzi and television channels were vying with one another to track down the unknown woman Sobhraj, 64, affectionately calls his "little wife."
"I am going to change my mobile telephone number," the Nepali beauty told IANS.
The news of the winter-spring romance has kindled fresh interest in Sobhraj, who has been serving a 20-year prison sentence in Nepal since his arrest in 2003 and conviction for the murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Armand Carrie and his American girlfriend, Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. Fighting his final appeal against the sentence in Nepal’s Supreme Court and anticipating the verdict any day now, Sobhraj, however, has vastly changed from the cool man with nerves of steel he was described as in the 60s and 70s, when tales of his crime exploits hit the headlines worldwide.
Although suspected of murdering over 20 backpackers in different countries, Sobhraj — dubbed the "Bikini Killer" and "Serpent" — was convicted only of manslaughter in India where he served a 21-year jail term in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail. After his release in 1997, he was deported to France. He became a criminal celebrity, garnering media attention in the Indian subcontinent and France.
Prior to his arrest in Nepal five years ago, Sobhraj also served time for passport forgery and theft.
"The media has been writing false things about me," he fumed. "How can they go on calling me a serial killer when no court ever found me guilty of any murder?"
Articulate, pretty and determined, Nihita Biswas is the result of a mixed marriage between a Bengali from Kolkata and a successful Nepali career woman, just like Charles Sobhraj, the son of a Sindhi tailor and a Vietnamese mother.
The two met three months ago in Kathmandu’s central jail. Sobhraj’s French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre was arriving in Kathmandu from Paris to inspect the status of their appeal against the life term and Sobhraj was looking for someone intelligent and reliable who could act as her guide and interpreter.
"It sounded like a good job," says Nihita, who was told about the assignment by someone who knew both Sobhraj and her. Unfortunately, when she arrived at the prison, the lawyer had already left.
But when she introduced herself to Sobhraj, it was a case of love at first sight for both.
Though he no longer needed an interpreter, Sobhraj did not want to lose sight of her and pretended he had an assignment for her.
"He gave me a list of things he wanted me to buy for him," Nihita laughs. "It was an enormous list."
That’s how the courtship started and after a month, Nihita was visiting him regularly, sharing lunch and his plans.
Then she broke the news to her mother and took her to the prison to meet the man she loved.
"I am a human rights activist," Nihita’s mother told IANS. "I think Sobhraj was sent to prison without any evidence to prove he had committed the murder. "
-IANS
