Meet A Sukumaran, ex-convict turned do-gooder. In 2010, this resident of Pattambi in Kerala's Palakkad district hacked his father's younger brother to death after a dispute over the erecting of a mobile tower on their family property.
Today, out from jail, he has gifted a kidney and a new life to a 20-year-old woman.
The now 47-year-old who sells lottery tickets told the Indian Express that he wanted to atone for his crime. He has been carrying the burden of his guilt since the day he committed the murder, which orphaned his uncle's family. After he called the police and surrendered, Sukumaran was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 28, 2010 by the Palakkad district sessions court.
When in jail, the avid reader came across a newspaper report about Arya Maharshi and his wife, who donated their kidney, free of cost, on the same day. The couple had made it to the Limca Book of World Records for their deed. They also conducted a session to inspire prisoners about organ donation.
First failed attempt
In 2015, Sukumaran came to know of a 26-year-old Sreekumar who was suffering from a kidney ailment. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to help the youngster as the state’s Prisons Department replied that there was no rule that allows a prisoner to donate an organ. Sreekumar died later.
Efforts bear fruit
Sukumaran persisted and wrote to the then chief minister Oommen Chandy and the then home minister Ramesh Chennithala. His request was transferred to the Law Department which, in July 2015, said that there was no reason why a convict could not donate his or her organs. In 2016, the state government issued a new law allowing inmates to donate their organs.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court in October 2015 upon Sukumaran's request reduced his sentence to ten years and transferred him to the open jail in Thiruvananthapuram.
Sukumaran was released in July 2017, citing good conduct, following which he went straight to the Santhi Medical Information Centre in Guruvayur and found out about Princy Thankachan, a 21-year-old woman, who had been undergoing dialysis for five years.
Finally, an organ donor
Sukumaran had only one demand - that the recipient be from an underprivileged family. Princy’s father told the NewsMinute: "He wasn’t just a donor. He participated in the campaigns to collect money for the treatment. He helps us get medicines and other things for our daughter. He has come wherever we called him without any hesitation."
New beginnings
The Indian Express report also said that Sukumaran mobilised money to help the ill wife of a former fellow prisoner who had died after being released from jail. The woman was abandoned by her family after her husband got involved in a theft case. Sukumaran and the woman have started a new life together with her three-year-old son. They are all set to legally marry.
Sukumaran wants to continue inspiring inmates with his good deeds. "Every prisoner who comes out of jail should have a ray of hope and goodness to live," he told the NewsMinute.