2011 rape-murder convict nabbed within hours of escaping Kerala prison by climbing 25-ft wall

The police arrested a convict in a 2011 rape and murder case within hours after he escaped from a high-security prison in Kerala's Kannur. Govindachamy had been given life imprisonment in Kannur Central Jail on charges of throwing a 23-year-old woman, Soumya, from a moving train and raping her near the railway line at Vallathol Nagar railway station on February 1, 2011.

Govindachamy escaped from his cell in the 10th block of the jail about 4 am on Friday (July 25). Following a manhunt, he was caught from a well behind the office of the National Sample Survey in the Talap neighbourhood about 11 am.

“We got the information that he had escaped around 6.30 am. The information was relayed to all the wings of the police. Public was alerted through the media. We analysed CCTV visuals in the city and got a lot of input from the public. He was found hiding inside a well of an abandoned compound in Talap,” Kannur superintendent of police P Nidhin Raj said. Raj said that police are probing if anyone from inside the jail helped him to escape. “It is found that he was planning the escape for the last few days,” he added.

Soumya, a native of Shornur in Palakkad district, was traveling in the Ernakulam–Shornur passenger train on February 1. After leaving the Vallathol Nagar railway station, Govindachamy allegedly attacked her and forced her repeatedly to slam her head against the walls of the compartment and then threw her off the train. He also jumped out of the slow-moving train and left Soumya lying on the railway track. He took her to the surrounding woods and raped her. The next day, he was arrested from Palakkad railway station. Soumya, who was working as a supermarket assistant in Ernakulam, succumbed to injuries during treatment at the Government Medical College in Thrissur on February 6, 2011.