‘Charles Sobhraj was staying at the Taj’: Cop who inspired Manoj Bajpayee film recalls arresting serial killer while eating chicken curry, got two officers to sit on him | Bollywood News

Inspector Madhukar Zende, who is remembered for his years of service in the Mumbai Police, spoke about arresting the notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj twice. This chapter in Zende’s career serves as the inspiration for the upcoming Netflix film titled Inspector Zende. He’s played in the movie the acclaimed actor Manoj Bajpayee. In a new interview, he recalled arresting Sobhraj twice, and the circumstances leading up to both encounters. He described the serial killer as a suave man who enjoyed luxuries, but was also capable of incredible cruelty.
In an interview on the Awaara Musafir YouTube channel, the former police officer said, “Charles was a very rough fellow. He didn’t care about the police at all. He came (to Mumbai) with five men for a robbery.” This was 1971, and Sobhraj was a wanted man. “He was staying at Taj, and he had kept all his associates at different hotels. We kept watch outside Taj for a few days, and spotted him wearing a suit. I grabbed him, and found out that he was armed. We took him to the station and found hotel receipts on his person. We sent teams to all those hotels, and found multiple rifles and weapons. He was planning something big,” Zende said. But Sobhraj wasn’t somebody who could be tied down. He escaped from jail multiple times, the most famous being when he drugged Tihar Jail officers with sweets on his birthday, and simply walked out.
Because Zende had already made headlines for having arrested Sobhraj once before, he was assigned the case. Zende said that he was sent to Goa his boss, who handed him and his colleagues Rs 10,000 each. Upon reaching Goa, they began asking around about a certain motorbike, which they believed Sobhraj was using. Zende and his fellow officers pretended that their brother had run away from home, and he was the one with the bike. But, when one man said that the bike was being used a European tour, they knew they’d found their man. Zende said that he went to a local cafe in the evening, after the spending the entire day passing time. They feasted on chicken curry and praws while waiting for Sobhraj to show up. He did, wearing a cap and carrying a duffel bag. Zende expected the worst.
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He said, “I knew that he was always armed, and I knew that he would open fire if he recognised me as the same man who’d arrested him once before.” Zende immediately sent out word that he had Sobhraj cornered, and asked for backup. “I went and grabbed him, and shouted very loudly, ‘Charles’! My colleague grabbed his bag and unloaded his revolver. But we didn’t have any handcuffs. So we asked the cafe staff to give us any ropes that they might have, and we used them to tie him up. He was a black belt, we didn’t know what he could do. Then we stuffed him into our car.”
Zende and his team immediately left for Mumbai, and to make sure that Sobhraj doesn’t try any funny tricks, he got two officers to sit on him during the overnight drive back to Mumbai. Zende became a celebrity of sorts in the weeks to follow. He was sent on a victory parade, and he got a private audience with everyone from Rajiv Gandhi to Dilip Kumar. Amul made an ad about him, and Lata Mangeshkar invited him home to congratulate him. It is said that Sobhraj deliberately got arrested in India, as he had an Interpol red notice on his head.