What happened to Ajay Chowdhury, one of the primary subjects in The Serpent? Portrayed by Amesh Edireweera, the character functions as the right-hand man for Charles Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim) throughout the 2021 Netflix series, but then disappears after a cryptic conversation. Chowdhury's fate remains a mystery in The Serpent because the real-life individual vanished after a 1976 meeting with his business partner and friend, Sobhraj.
The Serpent establishes Chowdhury as one of the primary villains. The series premiere reveals his complicity in the murder of 21-year-old Teresa Knowlton, and ultimately shows that he was culpable in numerous of Sobjraj's crimes. The Serpent also implies that Chowdhury clashed with his boss' girlfriend, Marie-Andrée Leclerc (Jenna Coleman), which foreshadows late-season conflict that possibly connects to his disappearance.
In The Serpent, the filmmakers use various time jumps when exploring Sobhraj's life and crimes, and Chowdhury technically disappears from at the tail end of episode 6. While traveling with Sobhraj in Karachi, Pakistan, Edireweera's character is confronted about his value to the operation. It's implied that he's no longer reliable, and he's also referred to as "a little brown thug" - a reference to an earlier comment made by Leclerc. Sobhraj states that he wants Chowdhury to make his own way in the world, and then exits the vehicle without a physical confrontation. According to the true story, Chowdhury vanished after this meeting, as referenced during the final epilogue in The Serpent.
According to a 2021 report (via Esquire), an alleged 1976 Chowdhury sighting in Germany was never confirmed. So, The Serpent may indeed provide an authentic version of events, as Chowdhury wasn't seen alive after his 1976 visit with Sobjraj. Prior to Leclerc's 1984 death, she never spoke on record on what might've happened to her boyfriend's right-hand man (via Distractify). Chowdhury and Sobhraj will forever be linked by their crimes, however they weren't actually life-long friends. The two men reportedly met in 1975 (via Pop Sugar), so the "Bikini Killer" likely didn't feel indebted to his crime associate, and presumably felt more loyalty to Leclerc.
The Serpent doesn't outright state that Sobhraj murdered Chowdhury; however, that is a popular theory for those trying to understand the latter's disappearance. Sobjraj remains jailed in Kathmandu and has admitted to killing at least 12 people, so it's curious that he's never opened up about Chowdhury's fate. However, given that Chowdhury was a known killer, it's certainly possible that he may have assumed a new identity and began a new life elsewhere. According to the aforementioned Edireweera, he's frustrated about the lack of closure for Chowdhury's family (via The Cinemaholic): “For me, the greatest shock was hearing his parents talk about him... I heard Ajay’s mother talk about 'her boy' and connected to the love that she still showed for him, in spite of everything that happened. I felt a real sense of sorrow for the family [because they got no closure].”