Kathmandu, Dec 25 (IANS): After spending over 19 years in Kathmandu jail, notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj (78), also known as 'The Serpent' and the 'Bikini Killer', was freed from jail and deported to Paris by the Nepali authorities on Friday.

On Wednesday, Nepal's Supreme Court had ordered the release of Sobhraj on health and age grounds.

Sobhraj, who was charged with several cases of murder, mostly of women, served the longest time in jail in Nepal, but those who came close to him in recent days, told IANS that they found a "different" Sobhraj while interacting with him on different occasions.

According to Gopal Siwakoti Chintan, Sobhraj's lawyer, 'The Serpent' has already reached France and is happy to be released ahead of Christmas.

Chintan had filed a case in the Supreme Court for his release owing to his age factor and health issues. Sobhraj underwent a heart surgery in 2017 in Kathmandu and also had a cataract operation.

Ramesh Koirala, who conducted the heart surgery, later came up with a book titled 'Charles Sobhraj: Inside the Heart of the Bikini Killer', and also narrated his interface with Sobhraj.

According to Chintan, Sobhraj seemed to be a learned person.

"I could never understand how this man killed so many people. He spoke less, and I found him to be a decent person," Chintan said.

Through a lady lawyer in France, Sobhraj sent a message to Chintan on Saturday that he had safely reached Paris.

After the Nepal government did not allow him to stay for a few more days in Kathmandu, Sobhraj was deported to Paris on Friday.

"It was not possible to provide security cover to him for an additional 10-15 days for which he was deported," a senior Nepali official told IANS.

When the government's decision was communicated to Sobhraj, he was also happy.

"When we told him about the government's decision to deport him on Friday itself, Sobhraj was happy," Chintan said.

"I am more than happy to leave now. I want to avoid the press and the media and live a peaceful life," Sobhraj told Chintan.

He told the police and Nepali officials that he will celebrate Christmas with his family after decades.

One retired jailer of the Kathmandu jail told IANS that he found Sobhraj a decent and learned person.

"We did not have direct interaction with him, but as per the reports we got from the other inmates, he used to read books related to international law, philosophy and fiction most of the time," the jailer said.

Sobhraj spent 19 years and two months in the Kathmandu central jail.

Sbobhraj was wanted in Nepal for the 1975 murders of Canadian Laddie DuParr and an American woman named Annabella Tremont, both of whom he had befriended in Kathmandu. Nepal police arrested Sobhraj in September 2003 from a five-star hotel in Kathmandu.

In March 1986, he had escaped from the Tihar Jail in Delhi after it looked likely he would be extradited to Thailand to face charges of murdering six girls, all wearing bikinis, on a beach in Pattaya. He was later re-arrested in Goa in April 1986. After his release from prison in 1997, he was known to have been living quietly in France.

Sobhraj argued in his petition in Nepal's Supreme Court that he has already served 19 years in jail and that he is 78 years old.

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur district courts in Nepal had found him guilty of the murder of American and Canadian citizens in 1975.

The Supreme Court in 2010 had endorsed the life sentence slapped on him by the Kathmandu district court. In 2014, the Bhaktapur district court then sentenced him for the murder of a Canadian national.

Suave and articulate, Sobhraj used to befriend unsuspecting Western backpackers and upon earning their trust, drugged and murdered them, and fled with their cash, valuables and passports.

Having spent 43 years of his life in jail, Sobhraj is perhaps the world's only convict who has served life sentences in two different countries during one lifetime.

"It's been a long legal battle, a long journey for justice. I feel relieved, and very light today," said Sobhraj's wife, Nihita Biswas, 32, a Nepali national who is 46 years his junior.

She used to frequently go and meet him in the jail and later they married, but Sobhraj did not meet her while leaving Nepal.

There is speculation that Sobhraj and Nihita have parted ways. Nihita tried to meet him outside the jail and the immigration department, but failed. Nihita's mother, Sakuntala, is a lawyer and had pledged his case in the court, but she also could not meet him upon his release.

Ishwari Prasad Pandey, jailor at the central jail, told IANS that Sobhraj was a nice man who suffered from multiple ailments. Most of the time, he used to stay inside the jail library, said Pandey.

"Sometimes he used to cook for himself, sometimes he used to eat with other inmates. He did not eat at the common mess often because of his health reasons. He also didn't like Nepali food much, which was cooked everyday in the jail," said Pandey.