Kannur, Jul 25: In a major security lapse, one of Kerala’s most dreaded criminals, Govindachamy, escaped from the high-security Kannur prison around 1.15 a.m. on Friday.

This major lapse came to the notice of the jail authorities around 5 a.m. and was reported to the local Kannur police after two hours.

Reports have said that at the time of the jailbreak, the power was switched off.

Govindachamy was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman.

As per reports, when dawn surfaced, a long rope made of cloth was seen hanging from the jail compound wall, which is more than 25 feet tall, and people were baffled about how a one-handed person could scale the wall, which has an electric fence too.

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.

(IANS)

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