Two murder convicts escape from field inside Nettukaltheri open jail

Two murder convicts escaped from the open jail in Nettukaltheri here on Wednesday.
Representational Image
Representational Image

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two murder convicts escaped from the open jail in Nettukaltheri here on Wednesday. Rajesh Kumar who is serving life-term for rape and murder of a teenager at Vembayam, and Sreenivasan alias Kanakappan who murdered his pregnant wife are still on the run. The duo were sent to work in the fields attached to the jail on Wednesday morning. Their absence came to be known only in the night.

However, it was seen as a security lapse from the part of prison officials to let the convicts involved in heinous crime to stay in the open prison where the inmates enjoy less restrictions. “As a temporary arrangement both of them were shifted from Poojapura Central Jail to open prison on March 23 as part of containing Covid-19 spread in the prison,” said a prison officer in the open jail. The superintendent of the jail was unavailable for comment. 

Rajesh, an autorickshaw driver, forcefully entered the house of the teenager at Vetting in Vembayam on March 6, 2012 when she was alone preparing for SSLC examination. After murdering the girl, he took away her gold ornaments. His conviction within 10 months was hailed as one of the fastest in the crime category. 

The Principal Sessions court awarded death sentence at a time when the country was agitated over the Nirbhaya gang-rape case in Delhi. The High Court later converted it into a 25-year-jail term without parole. Kanakappan killed his wife Vijayakumari who was six months pregnant in broad daylight at Oduvankadu in Palakkad on August 2, 2002. He suspected her of having an affair that led to the ghastly crime. 

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