KANNUR: Hours after escaping from the Kannur Central Jail early Friday morning, Govindachamy, the convict in the 2011 Soumya rape and murder case, was nabbed by the police, around 3.5 km away from the prison. The police, based on alerts from local residents, caught him from a well on the premises of the National Statistics Office at Thalap, where he was hiding.
Govindachamy’s escape from the high-security block was not a spur-of-the-moment stunt, but a meticulously crafted operation that unfolded over a year. Investigations by the police, coupled with Govindachamy’s statements, reveal a chilling level of detail — from deliberate weight loss and tool hoarding to cutting iron bars under the cover of rain and mapping CCTV blind spots, the one-handed convict plotted every move with precision.
Lodged in the fourth cell of the 10th block designated for high-risk inmates, Govindachamy, a native of Tamil Nadu, began his preparations months in advance. He gradually altered his diet, switching to a chapati-only menu to shed weight, making it easier to scale walls with his single hand. Once mocked for gaining weight on a prison diet, his appearance changed drastically. From a well-fed inmate, he turned gaunt, bones visible beneath his skin.
Police sources said Govindachamy was well aware of the security lapses at the Kannur Central Prison. “He had been planning for the jail break for almost a year,” said a senior police officer involved in the investigation.
“The rope he used to escape was made using cloth stolen from trial prisoners or taken from laundry lines inside the jail. He even managed to get hold of a blade — likely from plumbers who came into the prison — which he used to saw through the iron bars of his cell.”
According to the officer, Govindachamy began cutting the bars nearly 20 days before the escape. “He was very calculated. He worked during rainy hours to muffle the sound and left the bars partially intact so the damage wouldn’t be noticed during inspections. On the night of the escape, he bent the last section and slipped out,” the officer said.
Climbing the internal wall of the 10th block, which is around six ft high, posed no challenge to him after the weight loss. To scale the 20-ft-high outer wall, he used whatever he could find — two plastic tanks, a wooden box, a steel container, the officer said.
‘He altered appearance after escape’
All of those were salvaged from within the prison. He also knew the electric fence wasn’t live; it hasn’t been functioning for over a year. That gave him the confidence to proceed, the officer said.
He made the rope out of knotted cloth strips, tied it to the iron fencing to climb up, and then used it to descend on the other side.
Police believe Govindachamy also took steps to alter his appearance in advance. “He grew a beard, possibly with the cooperation of inmate barbers. It was clearly intended to help him avoid immediate recognition after the escape,” the officer said.
Importantly, he appears to have chosen his escape route with surveillance in mind.
“CCTV footage shows him moving toward the wall, but not the act of escaping itself. That suggests he studied the camera blind spots thoroughly, “ the officer noted.
“Right after getting out, he changed out of his jail clothes and put on a black shirt and pants. This change was caught on CCTV cameras outside the prison,” the officer said.
“But by the time locals spotted him, several hours later, he was wearing a white shirt. He had switched clothes again to avoid being recognised.”
As the investigation deepens, serious questions are being raised about prison oversight, internal vigilance, and how such an elaborate plan went unnoticed inside one of Kerala’s most secure jail blocks.
Jailbird’s flight ends in well
4.30 am: Govindachamy escapes from the high-security 10th block of Kannur Central Prison
6am: During a routine check, prison staff finds he is missing from cell
8 am-9 am: Kannur Town police launch large-scale manhunt
9 am: A local resident spots a one-handed man walking suspiciously near the bypass road in Thalap
9.05 am: Police and local residents begin searching the area
10.40am: An employee of the National Statistics Office finds Govindachamy hiding inside the well on the office premises
11.30 pm: Police and locals pull him out of the well. He is shifted to the Kannur Police Training Centre for detailed questioning
4 pm: Govindachamy brought back to Kannur Central Prison for evidence collection
6 pm: Kannur First Class Magistrate Court remands him in judicial custody for 14 days. He is then taken to Kannur Central Prison.
Four officers suspended over lapses
In the aftermath of the jailbreak, four prison officers — Rijo (Assistant Superintendent of Jail), Rajesh (Deputy Prison Officer), and Sanjay and Akhil (Assistant Prison Officers) — were suspended for security lapses
Govindachamy was convicted of murdering a woman after attacking her while travelling on a train from Ernakulam to Shoranur on Feb 1, 2011. He pushed her out of the train and raped her. She later died from injuries at hospital on Feb 6.