Rape convict Govindachamy caught hours after escape from Kannur Central Jail

Kannur: Hours after fleeing Kannur Central Prison, rape convict Govindachamy was caught by police on Friday around 10.40 am. He was apprehended during a search in an abandoned plot in Kannur's Thalappu area.

A local resident who had joined the police in searching the thicket-covered land told the media that the convict was found hiding inside a well. He is currently being taken to the police station.

Police had launched a statewide search operation covering all railway stations and bus depots. The timely intervention of alert citizens who had been following news reports helped the police apprehend the notorious criminal.

Govindachamy(41), who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman, escaped from the prison in the early hours of Friday. 

Reports suggest that he escaped from the prison around 1.15 am. Some of the officials who reached the parade ground spotted a rope made of clothing dangling down the wall at around 5.15 am. This raised suspicion, and authorities checked the cells and confirmed that Govindachamy escaped by cutting open the iron bars of the cell. He used clothes of remand prisoners to make the rope, prison authorities said. 

Govindachamy was reportedly wearing his jail uniform at the time of the escape. His jail inmate, who is also a native of Tamil Nadu, claimed that he did not notice anything unusual as he was asleep. He was housed in the high-security cell of the prison. According to reports, he tied clothes together to make a rope and scaled the compound wall. The jail officials are clueless about how the convict managed to collect the clothes and scale the wall without any help.

The high-security prison block where he was housed was surrounded by a compound wall. There was an electric fence on top of the 7.5-metre-high main wall. It needs to be found out how he managed to climb the wall with an electric fence. There are also reports suggesting that the power was switched off, although authorities have yet to comment.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to trace the convict. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police were also alerted. Railway stations and bus depots were searched, and CCTV visuals from areas near the jail were examined.

Jail authorities have come under fire for the alleged lapses that led to the one-handed criminal's escape. It is alleged that the jail officials launched the search six hours after he fled from the prison through the massive wall with electric fencing. Former BJP state president K Surendran alleged that someone deliberately switched off the electricity to the wall to help the convict. 

Speaking to Manorama News, the victim’s mother alleged that the police helped Govindachamy escape from jail. She demanded that he be caught immediately and punished. She added that the court should have sentenced the habitual offender to death.

Who is Govindachamy?
Govindachamy is arguably one of the most reviled figures in Kerala’s criminal history. The handicapped habitual offender from Virudhachalam in Tamil Nadu was already facing several theft and mugging charges around Salem when Kerala Police arrested him for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in February 2011.

He had pushed the woman, who worked with a private firm in Kochi, out of the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train in a robbery attempt, following which he raped her. The woman died on February 6. In November 2011, the Thrissur Fast Track court found him guilty and awarded a death sentence. Later, the High Court upheld the death sentence. In September 2016, the Supreme Court exonerated him of murder charges and cancelled the death sentence and upheld the life sentence. The Supreme Court noted in the judgement that there was no cogent evidence to prove murder charges against him.