India Hunting Escaped Killer, Arrests 7 Jailers

Indian police launched a nationwide manhunt Monday and alerted international police agencies after the daylight escape of notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj and six other inmates from a high security prison here Sunday.

Under pressure from opposition leaders in Parliament, the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi announced the arrest of seven jailers and ordered an administrative inquiry into the escape of Sobhraj, a criminal known as the “bikini killer” and subject of the best-seller “Serpentine,” by the late author Tommy Thompson. A reward of $2,000 was also announced for information leading to his capture.

New Delhi police said that Sobhraj and the others escaped Sunday after feeding jailers drug-spiked grapes and fruit custard during an unusual party in the office of a deputy warden at the Tihar central jail. By the time one of the drugged men awakened to sound the alarm, Sobhraj and his accomplices had escaped in a waiting car.

Parliamentary Censure Asked

“This episode means a total collapse of the security arrangements in the central prison of the capital of India,” said Madhu Dandavate, leader of the opposition Janata Party. “This is a fitting case for the censure of the government.”

According to the Press Trust of India, New Delhi police raided several known hideouts of the escapees Sunday night but found no trace of any of them.

In previous interviews, Sobhraj had vowed that if he escaped from prison he would change his appearance with the use of plastic surgery. A French citizen of mixed French-Indian parentage, he had already escaped from Indian custody once. He also escaped from a Greek jail in 1975.

Sobhraj has been in Indian prisons since 1976 on a variety of convictions and charges ranging from jewel theft to murder. The government of Thailand is seeking his extradition for a series of killings, mostly of young French and American tourists. He is also suspected in crimes in France, Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Nepal and Greece.

Violent Accomplishments

Bangkok newspapers dubbed Sobhraj the “bikini killer” after the deaths of several bikini-clad women were attributed to him.

Sunday’s escape was particularly embarrassing to Indian prison officials, who had already been criticized for favoritism in their treatment of Sobhraj.

Sobhraj had come to personify a commonly held belief here that treatment in Indian prisons depends on how much money the inmate is able to spend.

“The cancer of the Indian jail system is corruption,” Sobhraj himself said in one of many interviews. “The cancer of Indian jails is that rules exist only to be ignored.”

Special Protection Charged

In 1981, a senior official at the Tihar prison, M.S. Rittu, complained in a letter to the prisons administrator that Sobhraj was “protected” by the staff and that his special treatment had “crippled the administration.”

“His movements near the main gate are suspicious,” Rittu wrote. “He may be looking for a chance to escape.”

An investigation of the complaint revealed that an assistant warden at the jail permitted Sobhraj to use his office without supervision in order to engage in sex with a girlfriend.