Netflix spotlights Zende, the Indian cop who faced killer Charles Sobhraj

WEB DESK: Charles Sobhraj’s name once struck fear across Asia’s “Hippie Trail.” With charm, cunning, and a talent for vanishing, the half-Vietnamese, half-Indian conman built a reputation as both “The Serpent” and the “Bikini Killer,” luring young travelers before drugging, robbing, and, in many cases, murdering them. Though linked to more than 20 killings in the 1970s, convictions were few, and the full extent of his crimes remains clouded in speculation.

Netflix’s Inspector Zende, which premiered on September 5, shifts the spotlight from Sobhraj to the man who relentlessly pursued him: Indian police officer Madhukar Zende.

Played by Manoj Bajpayee, Zende’s calm persistence is contrasted against Jim Sarbh’s chilling portrayal of the renamed Carl Bhojraj.

The film traces their cat-and-mouse confrontations, beginning with Sobhraj’s botched 1971 robbery plot in Mumbai. Zende’s team disrupted the heist at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, arresting his accomplices. Yet the slippery criminal wriggled free during a hospital stay, vanishing amid wartime blackouts.

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A decade later, Sobhraj landed in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for murder. There, he lived in comfort until pulling off a brazen 1986 escape by spiking sweets with sedatives during a “celebration.” Tasked with hunting him again, Zende patiently staked out Goa’s O’Coqueiro restaurant. When the fugitive finally appeared, disguised in a hat, Zende disarmed him with a casual greeting: “Hello, Charles.”

That second capture sealed Zende’s legacy as one of India’s most tenacious officers. Sobhraj, however, resurfaced in Nepal in 2003, where he was convicted of two murders and served nearly 20 years before being released in 2022. Today, he lives quietly in France at 81.

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According to Times, Zende, now retired, remains a revered figure, in Mumbai policing, remembered not just for catching a killer, but for doing it twice.

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