Charles Sobhraj plans to appeal his conviction in Nepal. His lawyers say he was convicted because of his lurid reputation. His former jailors in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail shared their memories of him with the media:

Despite being known as a cheat, blackmailer and murderer, jail officials still recall Sobhraj’s sharp memory and uncanny knack of remembering about people around him as the most fascinating feature of his persona.

A court in Nepal has found Charles Sobhraj guilty of murdering an American tourist in 1975, and has sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The BBC has a profile of him. There is a much more colorful account of Sobhraj on Court TV’s website. When I did a search for who else had carried this story, I got hits from the tiniest newspapers all across the country, which I didn’t get when I did a search for “Darfur.” I suppose I am not the only person intrigued by this dangerous individual, having devoted two films (Eunuch Alley and Snake-Byte) to him as a character.

An article from the Indian Express about a pension plan for Hijras, which means that the Indian state is recognizing Hijras as sexual minorities and their rights. Hopefully a step towards the changing the extreme discrimination they face from another arm of the government, the police, not to mention some of the outdated penal codes, like section 377 which criminalizes homosexuality. There is also a rather well-meaning and unctuous article from the Utne Reader which looks at Hijras from a typically Western frame of reference, so is pretty unsuccessful at actually saying anything useful.

Charles Sobhraj has been in jail in Kathmandu for 10 months now and still awaits a trial for crimes committed in 1976.

It seems that Charles Sobhraj has been charged with murder in Nepal. The BBC covered it a few months ago.