WRITER and filmmaker Farrukh Dhondy has written a plausible and entertaining new book on the serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who was the subject of an eight-part BBC-Netflix drama, The Serpent, earlier this year, with French actor Tahar Rahim in the lead role.
Dhondy’s book is called Hawk and Hyena because Sobhraj “was exactly that”.
“He murdered people very boldly – like a hawk,” Dhondy explained to Eastern Eye in an exclusive interview. “He swooped down on them when he wanted to. But sometimes he killed pathetic people and just preyed on their dead bodies – just like a hyena. That was his career.”
Sobhraj is now 77, in poor health and serving life sentences in a Kathmandu jail for two murders he is said to have committed in Nepal. He was convicted of 11 murders in Thailand, but fled the country in 1975 before he could be executed.
In India, he was held in Tihar jail in Delhi from 1976 to 1997. After his release, Sobhraj ended up in Paris, from where he got in touch with Dhondy, then the influential commissioning editor for multicultural programmes at Channel 4.
Charles Sobhraj
Dhondy got to know Sobhraj extremely well between 1997 and 2003, when the latter went to Kathmandu to finalise a drugs and arms deal, involving the Taliban and the Triads, but was betrayed, arrested and sent to prison for life.
It is Dhondy’s second book on Sobhraj, after he previously wrote a novel, The Bikini Murders, in 2013, based on what Sobhraj had told him about his life of crime; Hawk and Hyena is a factual account of the man Dhondy got to know.
The book reveals how Boris Johnson, as editor of The Spectator, had a meeting with Sobhraj.
On another occasion, Sobhraj claimed he helped with the release of passengers taken hostage when an Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was hijacked after it took off from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.
Sobhraj said he had spoken to the Pakistani terrorist, Masood Azhar, who was released from Tihar in exchange for the passengers, with the swap taking place in Taliban-controlled Kandahar airport in Afghanistan.
Sobhraj claimed he had looked after Azhar when they were fellow prisoners in Tihar (in adjoining cells) and revealed he had become practically best friends with him.
On one occasion he had given a phone to Azhar, but then tried to bargain with RAW, India’s intelligence agency, by offering the numbers the Pakistani terrorist had used.
According to Dhondy, Sobhraj’s real name is Gurumukh Bhavnani. He was born in Vietnam, the son of an Indian Sindhi father, Sobhraj Bhavnani, and a local woman, Tran Loang Phun. After he was abandoned by his father, his mother married a French army lieutenant.
The boy, renamed Charles Sobhraj, grew up in Paris where he kept getting into trouble. He began his career as a serial killer, preying on hippies and vulnerable women, in Thailand.
Dhondy takes up the story in 1997 when Sobhraj contacted him at Channel 4 and told him, “My cousin, Raj Advani, was in college with you in Pune.”
This was true. Dhondy had come to England from Pune to study at Cambridge. Dhondy was intrigued when Sobhraj said he wanted help with the publication of his memoirs.
Sobhraj came over from Paris for the meeting with Dhondy and the distinguished literary agent, Giles Gordon, who declared the manuscript was “rubbish”. There were no admissions of serial killings, but just boasts about how he had got out of Tihar.
Undeterred, Sobhraj suggested that “Fa’ook” – he could never pronounce “Farrukh” – could do a movie on him. That was really why Dhondy kept up his interactions with Sobhraj in the hope that a “spicy” film could be made one day.
Sobhraj gave him “carte blanche” to write a treatment which he discussed at a picnic with the Indian director Shekhar Kapur (who made Elizabeth) in the open air in Holland Park.
Sobhraj asked to see the treatment and saw the opening lines: “There’s a killer on the loose! Charles Sobhraj has – by his own admission – murdered 52 people in five countries across Asia…..”
Although Sobhraj had promised not to say anything, he turned to Dhondy with a pained expression: “Fa’ook, where did you get this 52? That’s an exaggeration,
isn’t it?”
Dhondy's new book
Despite various starts, no film materialised. Dhondy resisted Sobhraj’s attempts to make him rich by getting involved in the illegal antiques trade and arms dealings.
At the time of the Gulf War, when then British prime minister Tony Blair was preparing to back US president George W Bush over Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Sobhraj asked Dhondy if he knew anything about “red mercury”.
Dhondy, who had read physics as part of his Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, realised that Saddam’s agents in Bahrain, which Sobhraj had visited, could be trying to source a dirty radioactive device.
The potential buyers were “Arabs in suits” interested in laying their hands on red mercury.
Sensing this had the potential for making a huge story, Dhondy got in touch with Peter Oborne, a journalist at The Spectator whom he knew slightly. Sobhraj came over from Paris. If Sobhraj was telling the truth – and he claimed he had evidence – it would prove Bush and Blair were right to go after Saddam.
The meeting took place at Oborne’s home in London. “Mrs Oborne was making the breakfast. Peter Oborne, Boris, myself and Sobhraj were there. Boris said, ‘This is too big for me,’ when he heard the story. He called the Telegraph. Somebody called Mike was going to turn up, but I had things to do and left.”
The meeting came to nothing. “Charles said the Telegraph offered him £15,000. He had demanded £200,000.”
Dhondy reckons Sobhraj was introduced to the Taliban by Azhar, whom he visited in Pakistan. Azhar had set up a terror network, Jaish-e-Mohammed. The idea was for the Taliban to sell heroin to the Triads. Sobhraj would expect to get a cut of the money. His role would be to put the Taliban in touch with arm dealers who could procure old weapons dumped in ex-Soviet states.
Sobhraj expected to double his money by betraying the weapons trade to the CIA in the hope of securing a safe haven in the United States.
When the Triads failed to turn up in Kathmandu, the CIA reckoned Sobhraj’s cover was blown and possibly tipped off the Nepalese authorities.
One mystery remains unsolved – the fate of Ajay Chowdhury, Sobhraj’s partner in crime in Thailand who was played by Amesh Edireweera in The Serpent.
Sobhraj told Dhondy of the murder of a young woman in Pattaya Beach in Thailand. “Sobhraj said it was Ajay who killed her. He said, ‘I didn’t do it.’ So, what happened to Ajay, I asked. Sobhraj said, ‘Nobody knows.’ Not only did Ajay know too much about Sobhraj but he had the potential to betray him. So he was disposed off. I don’t know how.”
Hawk and Hyena by Farrukh Dhondy is published by Bite-Sized Books.
A FORMER West Yorkshire Police officer has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison after being convicted of misconduct in a public office.
Wasim Bashir, 55, who worked as a detective constable in Bradford District, was found guilty of one count of misconduct in a public office for forming a sexual relationship with a female victim of crime. He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, 29 August.
Bashir retired from the force while under investigation but will still face misconduct proceedings.
The charge related to an incident of abuse of position for a sexual purpose, with Bashir engaging in a sexual relationship with a woman who had reported to West Yorkshire Police that she had been the victim of a sexual offence. He was involved in investigating her case.
The conviction followed an investigation by West Yorkshire Police’s Counter Corruption Unit under the direction of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. During the trial, the judge directed the jury to find Bashir not guilty of a second count of misconduct in a public office.
Detective Superintendent Natalie Dawson, Deputy Head of West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: “For a police officer to pursue a sexual relationship with a vulnerable woman who had come forward to report being victim of a sexual offence is nothing short of abhorrent.
“I want to reassure victims of crime and the wider public that this former officer is not representative of our organisation. One of the Force’s key purposes is to protect vulnerable people, and our officers and staff work tirelessly to protect people from harm and to safeguard victims.
“Former DC Bashir has retired from the organisation, but we will still continue with misconduct proceedings with a view to him being banned from gaining any further employment in the policing profession.”
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Protesters calling for the closure of The Bell Hotel, which was housing asylum seekers, gather outside the council offices in Epping on August 8, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images)
Court of Appeal has overturned injunction blocking use of Epping hotel for asylum seekers.
Judges say human rights obligations outweigh local safety concerns.
At least 13 councils preparing legal action despite ruling.
Protests outside the Bell Hotel lead to arrests and police injuries.
MORE than a dozen councils are moving ahead with legal challenges against the use of hotels for asylum seekers despite the Home Office winning an appeal in the Court of Appeal.
Judges ruled that meeting the human rights of asylum seekers by providing accommodation outweighed local safety concerns.
The injunction was secured by Epping Forest District Council after protests following the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by an Ethiopian asylum seeker.
The man has been charged and denies wrongdoing. A full hearing on the planning dispute over the Bell Hotel will take place in October.
At least 13 councils are preparing similar legal action, The Times reported, including Labour-run Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor. Epping Forest Council said it may appeal to the Supreme Court.
Asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government remained committed to ending hotel use by 2029 and argued the appeal was needed to move migrants “in a controlled and orderly way”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the government for prioritising “the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people” and urged councils to continue legal action.
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the government had used the European Convention on Human Rights “against the people of Epping”.
Councils including Broxbourne and Spelthorne confirmed they were pressing ahead with enforcement action on planning grounds.
Protests outside the Bell Hotel on Friday led to the arrest of three men, while two police officers sustained minor injuries.
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India and Canada have appointed new envoys in a step to restore diplomatic ties strained since 2023. (Representational image: iStock)
INDIA and Canada on Thursday announced the appointment of new envoys to each other’s capitals, in a step aimed at restoring strained ties following the killing of a Sikh separatist in 2023.
India has named senior diplomat Dinesh K Patnaik as the next high commissioner to Ottawa, while Canada appointed Christopher Cooter as its new envoy to New Delhi.
The move comes more than two months after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met Canadian prime minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 summit at Kananaskis in Canada.
Patnaik, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently India’s ambassador to Spain.
“He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced that Cooter will be the next high commissioner to India, succeeding Cameron MacKay.
“The appointment of a new high commissioner reflects Canada’s step-by-step approach to deepening diplomatic engagement and advancing bilateral cooperation with India,” Anand said. “This appointment is an important development toward restoring services for Canadians while strengthening the bilateral relationship to support Canada’s economy.”
A Canadian statement described the appointments as an important step towards restoring diplomatic services for citizens and businesses in both countries.
Cooter, who has 35 years of diplomatic experience, most recently served as Canada’s charge d’affaires to Israel and has earlier been high commissioner to South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar. He also worked as first secretary at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi from 1998 to 2000.
In June, Modi and Carney had agreed to take “constructive” steps to bring stability to bilateral ties, including the early return of envoys to both capitals.
Relations between the two countries had deteriorated sharply after then prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged in 2023 that India may have had a role in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Following this, India recalled its high commissioner and five other diplomats in October last year, while expelling an equal number of Canadian diplomats after Ottawa linked them to the case.
Carney’s victory in the parliamentary election in April has since helped initiate a reset in relations.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Security officers escort Sri Lankan former fisheries minister, Rajitha Senaratne (C), outside a court in Colombo on August 29, 2025. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)
SRI LANKAN former government minister surrendered himself to a court on Friday (29) after two months on the run, the latest high profile detention in a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.
Anti-graft units have ramped up their investigations since president Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September on a promise to fight corruption.
Former fisheries minister Rajitha Senaratne, who served in the cabinet of then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa, is accused of illegally awarding a 2012 contract to a foreign firm, allegedly causing a loss to the state of $83,000 (£61,478).
Senaratne had repeatedly dodged questioning, the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption said.
High Court judge Lanka Jayaratne ordered him transferred to a lower court to face multiple cases.
Several politicians from the Rajapaksa administration, as well as family members, are either in jail or on bail pending corruption investigations.
Former president Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested last week on a charge of misusing $55,000 (£40,738) of government funds for a private stopover in Britain.
Wickremesinghe, 76, who was granted bail on Tuesday (26), insisted the stopover was part of his official duties.
Under Dissanayake, two former senior ministers have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption.
The police chief has been impeached, after he was accused of running a criminal network that supported politicians, and the prisons chief was jailed for corruption.
The head of immigration -- arrested just before Dissanayake took power -- remains in detention on a charge of contempt of court.
(AFP)
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Protesters from the group Save Our Future & Our Kids Future demonstrate against uncontrolled immigration outside the Cladhan Hotel on August 16, 2025 in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo: Getty Images)
UK appeals court overturns ruling blocking hotel use for asylum seekers
Judges call earlier High Court decision “seriously flawed”
138 asylum seekers will not need to be relocated by September 12
Full hearing scheduled at the Court of Appeal in October
A UK appeals court has overturned a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the use of a hotel in Epping, northeast of London, to house asylum seekers.
A three-judge panel said the High Court ruling that set a September 12 deadline to move migrants from the Bell Hotel contained "a number of errors".
The case followed protests outside the hotel after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a local girl. Demonstrations have continued for weeks and at times turned violent, triggering debate on immigration policy.
The Court of Appeal said the earlier ruling was "seriously flawed in principle" and could act as an "impetus or incentive for further protests". It added that it failed to consider the "obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system".
The government will now not be required to relocate 138 asylum seekers from the hotel by September 12. The decision also weakens local efforts to challenge the use of other hotels to house asylum seekers.
The Home Office is legally required under a 1999 law to house "all destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are being decided".
The case will return for a full hearing at the Court of Appeal in October. Both the Home Office and the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, are opposing Epping Forest District Council’s bid to prevent the hotel being used for asylum accommodation.
The council argued that the hotel posed a public safety risk and that its use breached planning rules.
The hotel became the focus of national attention after resident Hadush Kebatu was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He has denied the charges, which include sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, and harassment without violence. His trial began this week.
Protests in Epping have since spread to other parts of Britain, as small boat arrivals across the Channel continue.