Nepal SC asks govt: Why can’t Charles Sobhraj be released?

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s supreme court has issued a showcause notice to the government seeking clarification why notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who is serving life imprisonment here in a murder case, should not be released from jail after spending 18 years in prison.
A single bench of the apex court headed by Anil Kumar Sinha issued the show cause notice in response to an appeal submitted by his lawyers to release Sobhraj, 77, on the grounds of old age.
The apex court asked the government to submit a written reply within three days on why he should not be freed, according to an official at the court. Sobhraj, a Frenchman of Indian and Vietnamese parentage, was charged with using a fake passport to enter Nepal and killing two backpackers in 1975, US citizen Connie Jo Boronzich, 29, and his girlfriend Canadian Laurent Carrière, 26