Overview

• Premiering Sept. 5 on Netflix, the drama casts Manoj Bajpayee as Inspector Zende and Jim Sarbh as a Sobhraj-inspired figure named Carl Bhojraj.
• Charles Sobhraj, dubbed the Serpent and the Bikini Killer, targeted Western tourists on the 1970s Hippie Trail through drugging and poisoning, with the true number of victims still disputed.
• Zende first arrested Sobhraj in India in 1971 and later led the high-profile 1986 recapture in Goa following the fugitive’s escape from Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
• Sobhraj was convicted in Nepal for 1975 murders, served nearly two decades, was released in 2022 on age and health grounds, and now lives in France.
• Thai murder warrants remain outstanding as accounts detail Sobhraj’s use of stolen identities, prison bribery, and calculated efforts to avoid extradition.