Sobhraj fiancée, lawyer apologise to Nepal Supreme Court

KATHMANDU - Five days after yesteryear’s wanted criminal Charles Sobhraj had his appeal against a life term for murder rejected by Nepal’s Supreme Court, it was the turn of his fiancee, Nihita Biswas, and her mother Shakuntala Thapa to appear in the same court, offering apologies for their outbursts on the day of the judgment.

Thapa, who is also Sobhraj’s lawyer, and Nihita, who claims to have married Sobhraj inside Kathmandu’s Central Prison, were slapped with a contempt of court case by two lawyers for calling the judges, who had found Sobhraj guilty, corrupt.

It was one of the same judges, Ram Kumar Prasad Shah, who ordered the court to summon the mother-daughter duo and if they failed to turn up in court, issue an arrest order.

The two women had collected their summons from the court Tuesday and were given three days to present themselves again and furnish an explanation.

However, they decided not to delay but presented themselves in the court Wednesday morning.

Since Gauri Dhakal, the other judge who had pronounced the verdict on Sobhraj along with Shah, went into retirement soon afterwards, the bench hearing their case Wednesday comprised Shah and Balaram KC.

Family sources said the feisty Thapa, who had also crossed swords with the two judges during the long murder trial, had decided to offer an olive branch and apologise for her outburst.

The two women’s plea was that since they were “Sobhraj’s family”, they were emotionally upset by the verdict that has now sent the 66-year-old behind bars for at least 10 more years.

Supreme Court spokesman Hemant Rawal told IANS the judges’ order at the end of the hearing would decide Thapa and Nihita’s fate.

The two lawyers who slapped the contempt of court petition - Rajan Adhikari and Shanta Sedhai - have urged the court to punish the women with a fine of NRS 10,000 and a one-year prison term.

Thapa is a senior Supreme Court lawyer and researcher whose career began to go downhill after she decided to defend Sobhraj.

It led to her defeat in a Nepal Bar Association election. She was also crucified by the tabloids for allowing her daughter to become engaged to Sobhraj, who has been described as a merciless serial killer by them.

Though Thapa’s defence of Sobhraj contains several startling pieces of evidence, they were disregarded by the two judges who found Sobhraj guilty of visiting Nepal in 1975 using a tampered passport and using the opportunity to kill American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich and her Canadian room partner Laurent Armand Carriere.

He will now have to serve out the remaining part of a 20-year jail term, having done almost seven years’ time already.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)