Click to play videoNew Delhi: Charles Sobhraj one of the world's most notorious serial killer celebrities, accused of murdering more than a dozen people. Also known as the ‘bikini killer’ and ‘the serpent’, Sobhraj is back in the news after the Nepal Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday that he remain in a Nepal jail.
The Supreme Court said that first another case – related to his fake passport – had to be settled simultaneously. Sobhraj was found guilty of the murder of an American backpacker in 1975 and sentenced to life in prison in 2004 by the Kathmandu district court.
However, there is another facet to ‘the serpent’. His dashing personal style has led to him to signing a $15 million book deal and another book, The Life And Crimes Of Charles Sobhraj, is already an international bestseller.
The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation was: Has the media glamourised the criminal, Charles Sobhraj?
To try and answer the question, on the panel of experts were DG Bureau for Police Research and Development, Kiran Bedi; senior journalist Madhu Trehan; and retired ACP Mumbai Police, Madhukar Zende - the man responsible for Sobhraj's capture in Goa in 1986 after he fled from Delhi's Tihar's jail.
Is Media Glamourising Criminals?
It is not only the media which is glamourising criminals. The public, too, wants to know about the criminal and that is why so many books are being written about him and why he has signed a book deal worth millions of dollars.
Kiran Bedi said that there was a normal tendency for people to know about crimes, the modus operandi, motive and sensationalism of a crime, but it was unusual to want to know about a criminal.
"I think that Sobhraj has drawn more than the attention needed as a person and as a name, rather than the criminal act. This has led to a glamourisation which has further led him to commit more crime. I think he became glamour-hungry over a period of time and this starvation led him to commit more crimes," she said.
She stated that he was a great psychological study because even when he could be safely tucked away in France after he was deported there, he came back to Nepal knowing that there could be cases pending there against him.
"I think that the glamourisation has led him to seek more publicity and that has worked against him," she stated.
Sobhraj: A Deadly Relic of Swinging '60s, Roaring '70s?
Charles Sobhraj was not a typical criminal low-life. He was educated, belonged to the middle class and traveled a lot, mostly with backpackers and around beaches. It seems that his brutal hippie image has added to the appeal that he has.
Madhu Trehan said that the way the media has been talking about Charles Sobhraj was not correct, using unnecessary adjectives to describe him, like dashing and snazzy.
"On his book deal, one should take the example of O J Simpson. His book deal fell through because there was a huge uproar and the people just did not want to read something like that and the publishers withdrew their offer. I think in some places here, journalism is at fault. We know that we can report a story straight and not angle it such so that we glamourise it," she said.
She added that when 1993 Mumbai blasts accused Yakub Memon was interviewed while he was still in custody, it was to expose the twisted thinking of a mind that actually commits such crimes. The same could be said about the interviews taken of Kashmiri militant Bitta Karate, which brought out his attitude and his belief towards the killings that he had done.
"I would not mind seeing an interview that would expose what is going on in Charles Sobhraj's mind. But giving him adjectives and making him out to be some kind of a playboy is not the correct thing to do," she stated.
Should Only Media Be Blamed?
Is the media thrilled by criminals and derives a sort of vicarious excitement out of depicting criminals?
Kiran Bedi said she felt that the media fed only the appetite of the audience and did not go into the causative factors, which would actually be helpful to the society.
"The media should delve deeper and figure out why this human mind actually went astray, rather than make Charles Sobhraj out to be a playboy," she said.
But is media the only group that should be blamed? After all, the entertainment industry has come out with movies such as Natural Born Killers and Ocean's Eleven, where killers and bank robbers are made out to be heroes.
Madhu Trehan said that the point was that it was the business departments of various media houses that were deciding what the masses should read, and the stories that often got prominence were the ones that would generate most revenue for that particular media house.
She said that the people who looked after the business aspect of media houses were the ones who were actually deciding the taste of the common people.
At this point Madhukar Zende jumped into the debate saying that media reporting cases such as these was usually good because it motivated the police and spurred them into action.
He added that it was not only the news media, which was covering Charles Sobhraj's case, but also other channels, which were documenting his crimes and trying to understand his psyche to know why he was compelled to kill.
Kiran Bedi disagreed here saying that the police did not get motivated, but was more pressured to pursue cases which were in the media limelight.
Celebrity Criminals
Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case and the media has obsessively covered the case. From the trial to the verdict, to Dutt being sent to jail and finally to being released on bail, every detail has been faithfully reported.
Madhu Trehan refused to comment on the case.
On the other hand, Kiran Bedi stated that the coverage of Sanjay Dutt's trial and conviction was sending mixed messages to the masses, messages that were not right.
"Sanjay Dutt has two sides to him - one side is the creative, good, popular, loved and human side of him and the other side is the mistake side of him. So, I think one needs to be very, very balanced in reporting about such candidates," she said.
Perhaps the lines between criminality and celebrity are becoming blurred and perhaps it is the media, which is responsible. Or perhaps it is the public pressure, which is responsible for getting a glimpse of the voyeuristic thrill, and not the dark side of a criminal.
Final SMS Poll Result: Has the media glamourised the criminal, Charles Sobhraj?
Yes: 94 per cent
No: 6 per cent
CNN-IBN Editorial
The criminal is an attractive figure for both the media as well as the entertainment industry, perhaps because a criminal's life demonstrates how much better a lawful life is.
From Robin Hood to Khalnayak to Don to The Bourne Identity, the criminal is often romanticised.
When the media covers crime, it should ideally not be to glamourise it but to show that it exists and is on many occassions effectively punished. Charles Sobhraj is a vicious criminal who is an example of society's aberrations and his life from prison to prison is anything but glamorous.
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