A life between Saigon and Pune
When I trace the outline of Sobhraj Hatchard Bavani, I see a man moving between two worlds. His presence flickers across Saigon and Pune, a tailor’s chalk marking lines on fabric while money changes hands in backroom ledgers. He comes into focus not through public records or proud milestones, but through the shadows cast by his son, Charles Sobhraj. The father lives in the margins of the story that made the son infamous, and those margins tell us enough to feel the texture of his life even if we cannot read every stitch.
Accounts portray Bavani as an Indian businessman of Sindhi origin who built a livelihood in mid-century Saigon. He dealt in clothing and money lending, a practical mix for a man who appears to have valued mobility and quiet prosperity. He was not a celebrity merchant or a civic leader, just a shopkeeper with a revolving suitcase and a ledger he likely kept close to his chest.
Names, origins, and the fog of biography
Even his name moves. He is often referenced as Sobhraj Hatchard Bavani, with variations that include Hatchand Bhaonani Sobhraj. Such shifts are unsurprising in the multilingual swirl of colonial-era Vietnam and India, with transliteration bending names across scripts and borders. His exact birth date remains elusive. Place of birth is equally clouded, though proximity to Pune and business links to Bombay suggest western India as a likely home base. The outline we carry is therefore cautious. He seems to belong to the early 20th century, active by the 1940s, and older by the time his son’s life erupted across headlines.
Work, wealth, and mobility
A tailor measures twice and cuts once. Bavani’s working life feels measured, pragmatic, and modestly successful. Saigon’s cosmopolitan streets would have brought him clientele who needed sharp suits and quick loans. Pune and Bombay offered parallel markets and family ties. He appears to have kept shops or residences in more than one city, living out of suitcases and crossing seas as business required. Descriptions label him wealthy for his time, though it is the kind of wealth that supports two households and affords a car, not the kind that builds empires or attracts magazines. He was a small merchant with a broad footprint, and that is often a solid way to survive the turbulence of war and postcolonial transition.
Family ties and fractures
For all his careful trade, his personal life reads like fabric torn along stress lines. In Saigon he formed a relationship with a Vietnamese woman, often named as Tran Loang Phun, sometimes written as Tran Loan Phung, and affectionately called Noi in some retellings. Their son was Charles, born in 1944. The father’s denial of paternity at first left Charles stateless, a bureaucratic wound that would open into a lasting emotional scar. Around 1948, Bavani left Tran and the child, and later formed a new family with an Indian wife. Reports point to at least two sons from this later marriage, but here again the record is thin. Names are missing, details are scarce, and silence becomes its own testimony.
The father’s relationship with Charles was sporadic and tense. There is a story of a car accident during a visit in 1961, leading Bavani to send Charles to relatives near Pune. Another episode places Bavani as the provider of bail for Charles in 1973, after a jewelry store robbery in Delhi. These moments read like knots in the rope between them, tight but isolated, with the rest of the line slack and frayed.
Charles Sobhraj the son in the spotlight
To write about Bavani is to navigate through the glare of his son. Charles Sobhraj became known widely as a serial killer, a traveler with a poisonous charm who manipulated borders and people with chilling ease. He is the one who wrote the public-facing chapters, and he often pointed a finger back at the father who was not there. His letters and interviews carried resentment, disowning the man and claiming he would make the family regret their neglect. Whether that bitterness transformed the son or merely catalyzed what was already there is a story only the son could fully tell.
Maternal branches and half-siblings
On the mother’s side, life continued. Tran eventually married a French Army lieutenant. Some accounts name him Jacques Roussel, others use a different name altogether. Military postings took her and the family across Vietnam, France, and Senegal. New children joined the household, creating half-siblings for Charles. One younger half-brother named André edged into Charles’s orbit in the 1970s, traveling and participating in crimes that led to arrest and a long sentence. This branch of the family, like the father’s second marriage, carried on without public details, but the intersections are visible where they cross paths with the son’s criminal record.
Grandchildren and later generations
Charles married in the late 1960s and became a father to a daughter, Usha, born in Mumbai in 1970. She later took the name Usha Sutliffe and lives in the United States, keeping a deliberate distance from the extraordinary notoriety surrounding her father. As for Bavani’s possible grandchildren via his second marriage, the record is bare. It is easy to imagine cousins, uncles, and aunties who know their family’s private version of the story, but the public has no map to find them.
Rumored later years and silence
After the 1970s the father’s trail fades almost completely. It is likely he died sometime afterward, perhaps in the 1980s or later, but no obituary surfaces from the archives available to us. The absence is consistent with the rest of his story. He avoided publicity. He kept to his work. He left behind children who walked very different paths from one another and from him. In a media landscape that rewards spectacle, he remained the still point in a spinning room.
How the story feels
I think of Bavani as a tailor working by lamplight, his needle flashing, his eyes narrowed, his hands steady. Outside the window, Saigon hums and Pune bustles, and the world teeters through wars and uprisings and independence movements. Inside the shop, he turns cloth and figures interest rates in a notebook. He loves imperfectly. He leaves. He returns briefly. He sends money sometimes. He closes the door without explanations. Meanwhile his son builds a myth of his own, and the father’s profile shrinks behind the silhouette of that myth.
A rough timeline
- Early to mid 1900s: Likely born in western India, origin often linked to Sindhi community. Early years unrecorded.
- By the 1940s: Working in Saigon as a tailor and money lender. Relationship with Tran Loang Phun. Birth of son, Charles, in 1944.
- Late 1940s: Leaves Tran and Charles. Later marries an Indian woman and starts another family in India.
- 1950s: Ongoing business between Vietnam and India. Limited contact with Charles.
- 1961: After Charles wrecks his car, sends him to relatives near Pune.
- 1973: Reportedly posts bail for Charles after an arrest in Delhi.
- After the 1970s: Withdraws from public view. Death presumed but unconfirmed.
FAQ
Who was Sobhraj Hatchard Bavani?
He was an Indian businessman of Sindhi origin who lived and worked primarily in Saigon, with ties to Pune and possibly Bombay. His trade centered on tailoring and money lending. He kept a low profile, and most public information about him appears in biographies of his son, Charles Sobhraj.
Why is his name recorded in different forms?
Transliteration and multilingual record-keeping often alter names across regions and eras. Variants such as Hatchand Bhaonani Sobhraj appear alongside Sobhraj Hatchard Bavani. Each version points to the same figure within the Sobhraj family.
Did he acknowledge Charles Sobhraj as his son?
Accounts suggest he initially denied paternity, contributing to Charles’s stateless status at birth. Over time, he had sporadic interactions with Charles, including arranging a stay with relatives and providing bail during a later arrest. Their relationship remained strained and distant.
What happened to Charles’s mother?
She is commonly named as Tran Loang Phun, also written as Tran Loan Phung and nicknamed Noi. She later married a French Army lieutenant and built a new family, moving with military postings through Vietnam, France, and Senegal.
Did Bavani have other children?
Yes, reports indicate that after leaving Charles’s mother, Bavani married an Indian woman and had at least two sons. Details about these children are limited and not publicly documented.
Was Bavani wealthy?
Descriptions portray him as comfortable for his time, capable of maintaining businesses and residences in more than one city and supporting two households. There is no reliable net worth figure, and no public accolades or major achievements are attached to his career.
Is there a confirmed date of death?
No. It is likely he passed away after the 1970s, but there is no confirmed record of his death in publicly accessible sources. His avoidance of publicity and the quiet nature of his life contribute to this uncertainty.
How did his choices affect Charles Sobhraj?
Charles often described feeling abandoned and resentful. The early denial of paternity and the fractured family life formed part of his personal narrative. Whether these experiences determined his later criminal path is a complex question, but they shaped his self-understanding and the story he told the world.
Are there any recent mentions of Bavani?
Direct recent mentions are rare and usually appear only in discussions about Charles Sobhraj’s background. There are no new insights that change the basic outline of Bavani’s life, and most references reiterate long-known details.
