Netflix’s upcoming series Inspector Zende explores the real-life hunt for infamous serial killer Charles Sobhraj. The show reveals every detail, from the startling clues that led to his arrest to the investigator who brought him down. Ahead of its September 5, 2025 premiere, the crime drama has already captured media attention. The series casts Jim Sarbh as Charles Sobhraj and Manoj Bajpayee as Inspector Madhukar Zende, and it promises a gripping retelling of one of India’s most spectacular police chases.

Real Story of Inspector Zende and Charles Sobhraj’s Arrest:

The television show takes inspiration from Madhukar Zende, the real-life inspector who gained fame for apprehending Charles Sobhraj, accused of murdering at least fifty tourists across Asia in the 1970s. Zende first arrested Sobhraj in 1971. In March 1986, Sobhraj drugged guards at Delhi’s Tihar Jail during a party and escaped. He fled to Goa, but his frequent use of the phone service at the O’Coqueiro restaurant finally gave investigators the lead they needed.

Retired inspector Zende later revealed in a media interview the details of Sobhraj’s second arrest, which he called the “most prestigious” of his career. He said the Maharashtra Railway Police had arrested a man carrying a revolver and a bomb, and questioning revealed the suspect’s links to Sobhraj.

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DGP Suryakant Jog assigned Inspector Zende to the operation because Zende had already arrested Sobhraj in 1971. In Goa, Zende and his team began tracking Sobhraj’s movements. A resident named Mapankar noticed a peacock-green motorcycle and pointed it out as a clear sign that Sobhraj had moved there. Menezes, a worker at the Central Telegraph Office in Panaji, gave Zende another crucial lead, saying that foreigners often made calls from the O’Coqueiro restaurant.

On the night of April 6, 1986, Zende spotted Sobhraj wearing a sunhat as he walked into O’Coqueiro. “I recognized him immediately,” Zende recalled. “I jumped on him, walked up to him, and said, ‘Hello, Charles. How are you?

Where is Charles Sobhraj Now?

Twenty years after his first imprisonment, Sobhraj walked free and returned to France, where he tried to live quietly. In 2003, he unexpectedly went back to Nepal, where authorities still wanted him for murder. Police soon arrested him in Kathmandu and convicted him of killing Laurent Carrière and Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975, sentencing him to life in prison.

In 2022, officials released him from a Nepalese prison because of his advanced age and poor health, after he had served almost two decades. He flew back to France as a free man on December 23 that year. Media reports state that he will turn 81 in 2025.

Take a look at the trailer:

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