Great Escapes: Master Crook Pulls Fast One

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"It will be one of those lazy tropical afternoons when interest in the case has waned, and the flies buzz and the guards doze in the heat, that Charles Sobhraj will make his move." That prediction, made in 1979 in a best-selling book, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj, became reality last week. During an impromptu "birthday party" with his jailers at the Tihar Central Jail in New Delhi, Sobhraj plied seven officials and guards with drugged sweets, tied them up, then sped away in a waiting car with six fellow inmates.

Sobhraj, 42, is known across two continents as a con man, escape artist and master criminal. He had been in jail since 1976 on a murder conviction. Though cleared of that charge in 1983, he was being held for possible extradition to Thailand to face a death sentence for allegedly drugging, robbing and killing several Western tourists. By week's end Indian police had uncovered no trace of the wily crook.