Govindachamy escape Kerala jail has shocked prison authorities and raised serious concerns about the security of high-security jails in India. Despite being an amputee with no left hand, Govindachamy—convicted in the 2011 Soumya rape case—managed to break out of the heavily guarded Kannur Central Jail on Friday morning. He was captured hours later after an intense manhunt by the Kerala Police.
Friday morning Kerala saw shudders run through its security system with the escape of Govindachamy, who was on life sentence as a rape convict. Govindachamy escaped even though he is an amputee and the left hand was amputated, from a high-security jail such as Kannur Central Jail, but he was caught only after a major police operation.
How Did Govindachamy escape Kerala jail?
The prison break was unearthed when the cell was being checked in the wee hours of Friday. After viewing the CCTV video recordings, police found out that Govindachamy had escaped in the range of 4 AM and 630 am. Nidhinraj P, according to Kannur SP, climbed the wall of the prison compound by tearing clothes into a rope.
Law enforcers are currently carrying out investigations into the possibility of him being given inside assistance by personnel or other inmates at the prison. SP Nidhinraj also stated that Govindachamy had been planning the escape over number of days.
There was massive search after his escape. He was eventually arrested along a damaged building in Thalap inside the city of Kannur.
The Crime That Shocked Kerala
Govindachamy is a life convict who raped and assaulted 23-year-old Soumya, a Kochi saleswoman who happened to be the victim in 2011. This is what happened to a passenger train, which was going to Shoranur out of Ernakulam.
After beating Soumya inside the ladies compartment, Govindachamy threw her off the train that was still running. He got off and took her wounded body into a nearby wooded place in Vallathol Nagar and raped her. Soumya later died of her injuries several days later in the Thrissur Medical College Hospital.
In 2012, a fast track court imposed death sentence upon him on the basis of the bloodiness of the crime. But the Supreme Court declined the murder case in 2016 in which it reduced the death penalty to the life imprisonment sentence against rape.
What’s Next?
Since this security breach, there has been a big question on the working and the supervision of the high security prisons in Kerala. This is under investigation to establish how such a dangerous offender escaped, and if he ever had assistance behind the locks.
The development of Govindachamy fleeing and being caught back has again sparked the anger of the people of Kerala over the Soumya case which had already been etched back into the general psyche.
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