The Serpent: Here's What We Know About Ajay Chowdhury

The Serpent recounts the true story of crimes committed by Charles Sobhraj, Marie-Andree Leclerc & Ajay Chowdhury.

Amesh Edireweera as Ajay Chowdhury, Charles Sobhraj's right-hand man.

(Photo Courtesy: Netflix)

Netflix's The Serpent recounts the true story of crimes committed by three people - Charles Sobhraj (played by Tahar Rahim) and accomplices Marie-Andree Leclerc (Jenna Coleman) and Ajay Chowdhury (Amesh Edireweera).

While Sobhraj is serving a life sentence in a Nepal jail, Leclerc died of ovarian cancer in April 1984.

As per a report by The Newsweek, Ajay was seen a year after he met Sobhraj in New Delhi in 1975. Soon after, he was offered a job as a handyman that would draw him to Sobhraj's murky world. Ajay hasn't been spotted for 40 years, and the Nepal Police had been searching for him till 2008. A Hindustan Times report had also stated that the police were searching for Sobhraj's partner-in-crime and at the time the Interpol file on Ajay was still open.

The Newsweek report states that Ajay is being hunted down for murders, thefts and robberies. He is also suspected to have burned victims' bodies in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Bishwa Lal Shrestha, a police officer who investigated the case in 1975, told the publication, "After discovering the bodies, we traced Chowdhury to a hotel, Monumental Lodge, in Kathmandu. But he had escaped minutes before we reached the place".

Ajay, Charles and Marie-Andree then went to Varanasi. Charles was arrested and sentenced a year later, while Marie was paroled and deported back to Canada after she testified against Charles. Meanwhile, Ajay just disappeared.

The report also states that before Charles' arrest, he and Ajay were seen in Malaysia heading to a jungle to obtain gems from a town. Only Charles was reportedly seen leaving the jungle, leading to speculations that Ajay might have been killed. However, later Ajay was spotted in Germany.

Describing Ajay to BBC, actor Amesh Edireweera said, "Ajay is from Mumbai and comes from nothing. He meets Charles, and in the chase for the high life becomes his right-hand man. This leads him to make choices that propel him to a much darker side of himself".

"There is a duality to playing Ajay - on the one hand, portraying someone so violent was at times very harrowing", he added.