Govindachamy, who had escaped from a high-security Kannur Central Jail, was nabbed by police in Kerala hours after the prisoner was involved in the Soumya rape and murder case of 2011. He escaped the cell at around 4 a.m. at the 10th block of the prison after serving a life sentence.
A mammoth manhunt ensued as police got a report of his escape at around 6:30 a.m. All stations were placed on alert, and it was announced through the media. Tips-offs given by locals and CCTV footage of different areas across the city helped locate him. By 11 a.m. Govindachamy was discovered hidden in a well within an empty building behind the National Sample Survey Office in the Talap region of Kannur.
Kannur Superintendent of Police P. Nidhin Raj verified the capture and stated that a police inquiry is in progress to know whether there could have been assistance to him within the jail setting. Early evidence indicates that Govindachamy was seeking escape days before.
The case in 2011 left Kerala amazed with countrywide outcry. Soumya (23), a resident of Shornur, Palakkad district, was assaulted in the passenger train on the Ernakulam-Shornur route on the 1st day of February 2011. Govindachamy, according to police, attacked her within the compartment and repeatedly banged her head against the walls of the compartment and later pushed her off the moving train at Vallathol Nagar station. He followed by jumping off the train and encountering her wounded by the rails and raped in nearby woods.
Soumya died of her injuries, and Govindachamy was caught the following day at Palakkad railway station. He was found guilty and received a life sentence. The fact that he escaped momentarily on a Friday has brought a question mark to the prison security in Kerala, and the state government has assured that a full-scale investigation will be carried out on the breaches that led him to escape.
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