Sobhraj’s fake passport case reopened

The Supreme Court on wednesday reopened a fake passport possession case against alleged international serial killer Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj.A division bench of justices Min Bahadur Rayamajhi and Kalyan Shrestha reopened the case. The Kathmandu District Court (KDC) had decided to close the case in 2004; the Patan Appellate Court had upheld the KDC decision in 2005.The bench has also been conducting a hearing on an appeal filed by Sobhraj challenging the conviction in a murder of an American national Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975.The KDC had slapped a 20-year jail term on Sobhraj for the murder of Bronzich and the Patan Appellate Court had upheld the KDC verdict. Challenging the lower court verdicts, Sobhraj had moved the apex court in 2005 and claimed that he had not entered Nepal before 2003.During wednesday’s hearing, government attorneys Brajesh Pyakurel and Rewati Tripathi demanded that Sobhraj be sentenced as he had committed a crime by entering Nepal by showing a fake passport. They claimed that Sobhraj had illegally entered Nepal with a fake passport in 1975 and killed American national Bronzich and Canadian national Laurent Armond Carriere.