Kannur: Rape convict Govindachamy was shifted to Thrissur’s Viyyur High-Security Prison from Kannur Central Prison and Correction Home on Saturday morning, a day after his failed attempt to escape from the jail. He was taken to Viyyur in a police vehicle around 7.15 am and reached the facility at approximately 12:30 pm. Kerala Prisons & Correctional Services department decided to shift  Govindachamy (41), who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a 23-year-old woman, after he escaped from Kannur jail in the early hours of Friday and was caught later in Talap.

Police apprehended him within three hours and 30 minutes after discovering he was missing from the jail. He was found hiding inside a well on an abandoned plot in Talap.

Viyyur High-Security Prison is a three-storey building with 180 cells, each of which is under CCTV surveillance. Currently, 235 inmates are housed in the jail. A total of 60 officials are on duty in this high-security prison, which can accommodate 535 prisoners.

After Govindachamy's capture, Kannur City Police Commissioner Nidhinraj IPS stated that the convict had planned the escape several days in advance, and whether he received help from inside the prison would be investigated.

“Some tools were recovered from him when he was caught,” he added.

Three prison officers deputed at Kannur Central Jail were suspended following a preliminary enquiry, which found that they had failed in their duties. In the suspension order issued by DIG Jayakumar V, it was noted that Deputy Prison Officer Rajeesh A K failed in his duty as Tower Officer to supervise the inmates, while Assistant Prison Officers Sanjay S and Akhil C, who were on Block Duty and CCTV Control Room duty respectively, were not vigilant enough to notice the jailbreak.

The DIG ordered their suspension with immediate effect and said that during the suspension period, they would be entitled to subsistence allowance.