The chilling saga of French serial killer Charles Sobhraj — dramatized in the BBC-Netflix hit The Serpent — is already well known. But Netflix’s new film shifts the spotlight to an unsung hero: the Indian police officer who not only captured the elusive killer once, but twice.
Titled Inspector Zende, the film stars Manoj Bajpayee as Inspector Madhukar Zende and Jim Sarbh as Sobhraj, reimagined under the alias Carl Bhojraj. Set over three tense weeks in 1986, it depicts a gripping game of cat-and-mouse between the wily fugitive and the determined cop.
A Daring Escape
The story begins on 16 March 1986, when Sobhraj escaped from Delhi’s high-security Tihar jail. Serving a 12-year sentence for murdering a French tourist, he tricked guards and inmates alike by passing out drug-laced sweets under the pretense of celebrating his birthday. Days later, he resurfaced in Mumbai.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, authorities turned to Inspector Zende — the very man who had first arrested Sobhraj back in 1971.
The Original “Supercop”
Now 88 and retired, Zende recalls that his reputation as a fearless officer was cemented by his encounters with “the international criminal Sobhraj.”
Born in Saigon to a Vietnamese mother and Indian father, Sobhraj grew up in France and first made headlines in India in 1970 after a bold jewelry heist in Delhi’s Ashok Hotel. Arrested a year later by Zende in Mumbai, he soon escaped custody — the first of many Houdini-like prison breaks.
Over the next five years, Sobhraj was linked to more than 20 murders across India, Nepal, and Thailand. His victims, often Western backpackers, were drugged, strangled, or burned. His skill at disguise earned him the nickname “The Serpent,” while the press dubbed him the “Bikini Killer.”
The 1986 Manhunt
When news broke of Sobhraj’s escape from Tihar, Zende knew the task ahead would be difficult:
“He had outsmarted police across the world. No one could be sure when he might slip away again,” Zende later wrote in his memoir Mumbai’s Most Wanted.
Two weeks later, he and his team were dispatched to Goa, where they suspected Sobhraj was plotting to flee to the U.S. At the O’Coqueiro restaurant in Porvorim — a hotspot for wealthy tourists making international calls — they lay in wait.
On the night of 6 April 1986, as a wedding and a televised India-Pakistan hockey match filled the venue with noise, Sobhraj walked in. Zende recognized him instantly. “The 10 years of not seeing him fell away in an instant,” he recalled.
Fame and Legacy
The dramatic arrest turned Zende into a national celebrity. Newspapers hailed him with the pun “Zendabad” (a play on zindabad, meaning “long live”). He was honored by Bollywood stars, praised by ministers, and awarded the President’s medal for bravery. Even the O’Coqueiro restaurant immortalized him with a “Zende Platter” on its menu.
Sobhraj, meanwhile, returned to prison for another decade. He later admitted the escape had been a ploy to extend his sentence and avoid extradition to Thailand, where he faced certain execution.
After his release in 1997, he lived briefly in Paris before being arrested again in Nepal in 2003 for two murders committed there in 1975. He spent 19 years in jail before being freed in 2022 on account of age and good behavior, and deported to France.
Today, Inspector Zende has moved on. Asked if he still follows Sobhraj’s life, he replied calmly:
“He’s served his sentence. He’s 81 now. I’m not concerned about him anymore.”
Source: BBC
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