41-year-old convict held hours after dramatic escape attempt

Kerala police captured notorious convict Govindachamy, who escaped from prison, hiding in a well after slicing bars and scaling the wall.

Police in Kerala on Friday apprehended a notorious rape-murder convict hours after he made a dramatic break from the high-security Kannur Central Prison.

41-year-old convict held hours after dramatic escape attempt

The 41-year-old convict identified as Govindachamy, who has been serving a life sentence in connection with the sensational rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 2011, was caught by the local police from inside a well in a derelict compound in the Talap neighbourhood of Kannur town, barely three kilometres from the prison. Police and jail officials have found that Govindachamy, whose left hand was amputated years ago, sliced open the bars of his jail cell and used a rope fashioned out of several clothes to scale the 25-ft boundary wall of the central prison.

Following the capture, the convict, a native of Karur in Tamil Nadu, was questioned for hours by the Kannur city police to understand how he evaded tight security and escaped from his solitary confinement inside the central prison. He was later taken for evidence collection, followed by a medical assessment. He is expected to be produced before a magistrate, in connection with the case of his escape from prison, and likely shifted to the Viyyur central jail in Thrissur.

The Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services initiated an investigation and has placed four jail officials under suspension for lapses on their part following a preliminary inquiry. The suspended officials are Assistant Jail Superintendent Rejo, Deputy Prison Officer Rejish and Assistant Prison Officers Sanjay and Farith.

“We relayed the information to all the ranges of the police across the state and through the media to the public. This helped the public remain alert. We analysed a lot of CCTV footage and received information from the public. Based on such information, we were able to locate him inside a well in the Talap area. We managed to catch him within three-and-a-half hours of his escape from prison,” Nidhinraj said.

Unnikrishnan, a staff member at a nearby office building was among those who saw Govindachamy hiding inside the well within the unused compound and informed the police.

He said, “When I heard the news (of Govindachamy having escaped), I decided to look around and help the police. Since this area around the well was a good hiding spot, I checked and to my surprise, saw him holding on using a rope inside the well. He saw me and threatened to stab me to death if I told anyone. I called out to everyone and he was caught within seconds.”

Nidhinraj said that Govindachamy had been planning his jail-break for quite a while and that it would be investigated if he got assistance from inside the jail.

A jail official, under condition of anonymity, said that Govindachamy cut open the bars of his prison cell using a sharp weapon that he may have sourced from someone inside the jail.

“Two vertical bars and one horizontal bar of the cell door are seen to have been sliced. He would have been doing it over months and masking it in some way. Due to his lean body shape, he was able to easily slip out. He then fashioned a rope out of clothes of prisoners and used it to jump over the boundary wall,” the official said.

The prisons department will investigate how the convict managed to flee his cell and make his way outside without guards or other officials noticing him.

Govindachamy was convicted for pushing a 23-year-old woman from a moving train and then raping her in Thrissur district in February 2011. The woman later succumbed to injuries. Though he was handed a death sentence by the trial court and the Kerala high court, the SC later commuted his sentence to life in prison.

The woman’s mother told local media that she had been concerned about the safety of women when she heard about his escape.

“Imagine the situation if people like him break out of jail. I am grateful to those who nabbed him,” she said.

Leader of the opposition VD Satheesan said it was certain that Govindachamy got assistance for jail-break from inside or outside the prison.

“It is unbelievable that a one-handed man managed to slice open the bars of his cell and scale such a high boundary wall to escape. The incident is an embarassment for the government. We have been saying for many years that the prison is controlled by a section of criminals,” he said.