Charles Sobhraj's arrest from Goa restaurant in 1986 looked like film shoot: Eyewitness
Panaji (PTI): Armando Gonsalves still remembers the evening of April 6, 1986 when the then Mumbai Crime Branch inspector Madhukar Zende brandished a gun to nab serial killer Charles Shobhraj, who was sitting on an adjacent table in a restaurant at Porvorim in Goa.
Everything was normal and the O'Coqueiro restaurant was packed with customers.
"A wedding function was underway at the other side of the restaurant. I was enjoying drinks and dinner with my friend Auspicio Rodrigues when the incident happened," local businessman Gonsalves told PTI, recalling the time when Sobhraj was arrested in Goa by the Mumbai Crime Branch team.
"For a few moments, I thought it was a movie shoot," he said.
Thirty six years down the line, the restaurant still continues to serve people and is famous as the place where Sobhraj was arrested.
The eatery's management has put up a statue of Sobhraj in a corner of the place, which has now become a selfie point for tourists and visitors.
Nepal's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the release of 78-year-old Sobhraj, a Frenchman of Indian and Vietnamese parentage who has been in jail here since 2003 on murder charges.
Nicknamed "the Bikini Killer" and "the Serpent" due to his skill at deception and evasion, Sobhraj was serving a life-term in the Kathmandu jail since 2003 for the murder of American woman Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975 in Nepal. In 2014, he was convicted of killing Laurent Carriere, a Canadian backpacker, and given a second life sentence. A life-term in Nepal means 20 years in jail.
Gonsalves remembered that a foreigner, David Hall, who was later identified as a drug peddler, was sitting on a table next to them, and Sobhraj had joined him.
"None of us knew what exactly was happening. For a few moments, I thought it was a movie shooting. We later realised the seriousness of the moment," he said.
Sobhraj and his partner had given up without a fight, but police were not in a mood to take any chance so they started searching for a rope to tie him to the chair, Gonsalves said.
"I along with my friend rushed to the kitchen and got a rope using which Sobhraj was tied down. Later, he was taken in a car and police drove to Mapusa town, located six km from Porvorim," he recalled.
The police later took a break for dinner at a place owned by the tourism department in Mapusa where Sobhraj continued to be tied with the rope, Gonsalves said.
"We went on our scooter till Mapusa along with the car," Auspicio Rodrigues remembered, adding that Goa Police had not come to the scene till then.
Gonsalves and Rodrigues then went on their scooter to accompany police till the state border with Maharashtra.
Retired photojournalist Sunil Naik also recalled how he had rushed to the restaurant with his camera after getting information about Sobhraj's arrest.
"By the time I reached there, police had already taken away Charles Sobhraj. I recorded a video of the place where he was arrested and sent the tape to Mumbai the next day," said Naik, who was then freelancing for public broadcaster Doordarshan from Goa.
"A Doordarshan team in Mumbai was waiting for the tape as it had to be aired immediately. Doordarshan later broke the news and that was the time when Parliament was in session," he said.
Back to the current times, O'Coqueiro is famous among visitors due to the statue of Charles Sobhraj.
"We plan to put up another statue of the then inspector Madhukar Zende at the restaurant," said Shekhar Diwadkar, general manager of the Alcon Anil Counto Enterprise, a hotel group which took over O'Coqueiro since 1998.
Diwadkar said the restaurant has been a talking point because of the arrest of Sobhraj at the eatery. "The statue is a selfie point right now and visitors are curious to know about the 1986 incident," he said.
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EC dismisses scope for wrongdoing at strongrooms; prohibitory orders around Kolkata counting centres
Kolkata (PTI): A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent hours at the EVM strongroom of her Bhabanipur constituency alleging possibilities of malpractices, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Friday asserted there is no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres.
Following tensions around two counting centres in Kolkata late on Thursday, police clamped prohibitory orders on gatherings outside all seven strongrooms in the city.
Stating that round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of strongrooms was in place, Agarwal dismissed the allegations as "baseless".
TMC spokesperson and Beleghata constituency candidate Kunal Ghosh said that party workers and poll aspirants were keeping a strict vigil at the counting centres, where the EVMs are stored in strongrooms, upon directions of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.
"There is no scope for any wrongdoing given the arrangements made to secure the EVMs. The Centres have been kept under thorough CCTV coverage and their live-streamed footage can be seen from outside," Agarwal told reporters.
"One should have reason and evidence for making allegations," he said, maintaining that there were no grounds for levelling charges of EVM tampering or pre-counting malpractice.
Two counting centres in Kolkata witnessed high drama late on Thursday evening after TMC leaders alleged a lack of transparency and possible malpractice at the strongrooms housing sealed EVMs of the assembly polls, which concluded on April 29.
Mamata Banerjee herself landed up at the Sakhawat Memorial School counting centre and stayed put there for about four hours. She emerged from the premises past midnight and warned against any attempts to tamper with the counting process, demanding greater transparency.
TMC leaders and candidates Sashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh held a sit-in outside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra counting centre on Thursday evening, alleging unauthorised activities inside the strongroom amid the absence of TMC agents.
Matters came to a head after a large number of supporters from both TMC and BJP camps gathered outside the venue, shouting slogans till they were dispersed by security forces.
The EC, however, dismissed the claim, clarifying that poll officials were engaged in the task of segregating postal ballots as per due process and the strongrooms remained secure, asserting all political parties for the mandatory segregation activity were duly notified.
On Friday, Kolkata Police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS around all seven designated strong rooms in the city.
As per the order issued by Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, the restrictions prohibited the assembly of five or more persons within a 200-metre radius of each strongroom, along with a ban on processions, demonstrations, and carrying of weapons or explosive materials.
The measure, which aims to prevent any breach of peace, violence, or disturbance during the storage of ballot papers and polled EVMs, will remain in force until the commencement of counting on May 4.
Besides the two counting centres in question, the prohibitory orders were also clamped around the Hastings House complex, APC Polytechnic College, St. Thomas Boys' High School, Ballygunge Government High School and the David Hare Training College counting premises.
A senior police officer said enhanced security arrangements have been made at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, the counting centre for several assembly seats in north and east Kolkata housing EVM strong rooms.
"Additional CAPFs and armed police forces have also been deployed under the supervision of an additional commissioner and a deputy commissioner of police," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Kolkata, Rupesh Kumar, told reporters after visiting the area.
Expressing apprehension that unauthorised movements might occur when a section of postal ballots is brought in the evening, Kunal Ghosh said on Friday morning that the party's polling agents and candidates have been alerted about the matter.
Minister Shashi Panja, who also arrived at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra in the morning, maintained that "transparency" should be ensured for all strongroom activities.
Ghosh told reporters on Friday that though they had seen some movement in a strongroom that allegedly stored postal ballots, there was no such movement on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Banerjee's challenger at Bhabanipur and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari took a dig at the chief minister for her late-night visit to the counting centre.
"I want to reassure the people of Bhabanipur and of West Bengal that the TMC candidate and outgoing chief minister was prevented from taking any additional advantage. Despite her best intentions to the contrary, she wasn't allowed to act in violation of rules," Adhikari wrote on social media platforms, posting a picture of Banerjee sitting at what appeared to be an area outside the counting centre strong room.
"Till such time she was present there, my election agent, advocate Surjyanil Das personally positioned himself at the spot keeping a tight watch on her so that she isn't able to take recourse to improper means," he added.
Security forces kept a strict vigil in and around counting centres and strongrooms in Kolkata and other districts where EVM machines used in the state assembly elections are stored, an official said.
Sakhawat Memorial School in south Kolkata's Bhabanipur, which saw high drama till the early hours of Friday with the chief minister spending several hours at the counting centre, wore a peaceful look in the morning with security personnel guarding the area.
