2011 Soumya Rape-Murder Case Convict Govindachamy Arrested Hours After Escaping From Kannur Central Jail

2011 Soumya Rape-Murder Case: According to reports, the prison’s power supply was cut off during the time of the escape, raising further questions about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Photo Credit: IANS

New Delhi: The Kerala Police in Kannur have successfully recaptured Govindachamy, a notorious criminal who escaped from the high-security Kannur Central Prison in the early hours of Friday. After fleeing the jail around 1:15 a.m., Govindachamy was found hiding in a well.

The jailbreak went unnoticed until about 5 a.m., with prison authorities notifying the Kannur police two hours later. Govindachamy’s daring escape had sparked widespread concern, given his infamous criminal record in Kerala.

According to reports, the prison’s power supply was cut off during the time of the escape, raising further questions about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Govindachamy is serving a life sentence for the 2011 rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in the Soumya case, a crime that shocked the nation.

At daybreak, prison staff discovered a rope made from knotted cloth hanging from the compound wall, which is over 25 feet high and topped with an electric fence. The escape has sparked disbelief, especially considering Govindachamy has only one functional hand, raising serious concerns about how he managed to scale the wall undetected.

In Kannur jail, there is a special high-security prison comprising 68 cells, and it was from one of these cells that the criminal managed to escape.

All high-ranking police officials in Kannur are shocked by the incident, and State Police Chief Revada Chandrasekhar is also overseeing the present operation to ensure that the criminal is caught again at the earliest.

The Kerala High Court in December 2013 had upheld a fast-track court’s decision that Govindachamy had robbed and pushed 23-year-old Soumya, a native of Shoranur, off the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train on February 1, 2011.

She was raped and brutally thrashed. Soumya was found by the Railway police near a track. She succumbed to her injuries at the Government Medical College in Thrissur on February 6, 2011.

At that time, Govindachamy had already been convicted in eight cases in his native state, Tamil Nadu.

The fast-track court in 2012 awarded a death sentence to the accused, considering him a habitual offender and holding that the brutal rape was one of the reasons for the victim’s death and that the nature of the crime was so savage that it shocked society.

The HC had upheld the death sentence two years later, against which he moved the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in 2016 commuted the death sentence of Govindachamy to a seven-year jail term after dropping the murder charge against him, but the life sentence was upheld.

Soumya’s mother expressed huge disappointment at the jail escape. “How could this happen at a high-security jail with all CCTV protocols. This means he has got help from some quarters, and this is depressing,” she said.

Ashraf, the police man who captured the dreaded criminal in 2011, said he always feared that this habitual offender would jump out of jail.

Former state BJP president K. Surendran launched a scathing attack on the government and the police. He said he criminal did not jump out of jail, "but the escape was facilitated".

“There is a big conspiracy, as the one-handed Govindachamy has been allowed to escape. The Kannur jail is governed by a jail committee, including top CPI(M) leaders like P.Jayarajan,” said Surendran.

(With Inputs from IANS)