Kathmandu: Notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who is serving life sentence in a Kathmandu jail, has made an attempt to escape, but police today (Nov 3, 2004) claimed to have foiled it by unearthing an e-mail sent from his laptop asking a friend to help drug prison guards.

Authorities seized a laptop, a mobile phone and a cordless phone from the prison cell of Sobhraj, known as "the serpent", and discovered the mail asking for some specific chemicals to drug the prison guards, spokesman of the Nepal police Ramesh Singh said.

The criminal, known for his talent for disguise and escape, has given a list of chemicals that can make people unconscious and sought arrangements for taking him to India and then to France, a police official said.

The Home Ministry had formed a three-member inquiry committee last week to investigate reports that Sobhraj was being allowed to use a mobile phone inside the jail.

Sobhraj, a French national, was sentenced to life by a Nepalese court in August after holding him guilty of murdering American woman Konizo Brohich in Kathmandu in December 1975.

Last week he had filed an appeal with Nepal's Appellate Court against his sentence in the 28-year-old murder case on the ground that there was no sufficient evidence to convict him in the case.

He was arrested from a Kathmandu casino in August last year.

He had also spent 20 years in jail in India for drugging and robbing tourists before he was deported to France in 1997.