2011 Soumya rape and murder case: Convict Govindachamy alias Charley Thomas breaks out of Kerala’s high-security Kannur central jail
A convict has fled from Kannur central jail on 25th July, triggering a massive manhunt. Police discovered that Govindachamy alias Charley Thomas was missing from his cell at 7:15 am, in a startling breach in prison security. The Tamil Nadu native was behind bars in the rape and murder case of 23-year-old Soumya, in 2011.
According to reports, the instance happened at around 1:15 am. His disappearance was only discovered by jail officials later in the morning when they conducted routine checks. He had been incarcerated at the high-security facility in the fourth cell of the 10th Block.
His recent image has been made public. The authorities also released a phone number and urged people to contact if they spot him. Charley Thomas was in his jail uniform when he escaped. Another inmate, who is also from Tamil Nadu stated that he was asleep and did not observe anything out of the ordinary. An internal investigation has commenced to find out how he managed to abscond.
The fugitive only has one arm, but was able to get out of the one of the most secure prisons in the state. He reportedly made a rope out of his knotted garments and used it to scale the prison wall.
Efforts to catch the prisoner amid backlash
The incident is shrouded in mystery because the jail staff has no idea how he gathered the clothes and executed his escape plan without assistance. Now, a Special Investigation Team has been established. Police in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have reportedly been notified to find the offender.
The senior officials stated that further surveillance has been implemented at border areas and transportation hubs and that all checkpoints have been informed. They are also looking into potential weaknesses in the jail’s security system. CCTV footage of the areas surrounding the jail is being analysed and inspections of train and bus terminals are underway. Police officers were seen checking trains in Kannur.
The jail authorities have drawn criticism after the development. Officials are accused of conducting the search six hours after he broke out of the facility by climbing over the massive electric fence wall. K Surendran, the state head of the Bharatiya Janata Party suspected that someone purposefully turned off the wall’s electricity to help him.
The victim’s mother voiced that the police aided him, in an interview with Manorama News. She insisted that he should be apprehended and punished straight away and further conveyed that the court should have imposed death penalty on him.
Background of the case
On 1st February 2011 Soumya was alone in the ladies’ compartment of the passenger train from Ernakulam to Soranur. She was thrown out of the moving train near Vallathol Nagar station by Charley Thomas, who already had a criminal record. He had entered the coach illegally, tried to rob her and also abused her.
He then pursued her, pulled her into a wooded location, sexually assaulted her and ran away. The victim suffered internal trauma and significant head injuries due to which she passed away on 6th February, as she was undergoing treatement at Thrissur Medical College Hospital. The perpetrator is from Virudhachalam and had already been charged with multiple muggings and thefts in the Salem area before his arrest in this case.
A Thrissur fast-track court first sentenced him to death in 2012 and the Kerala High Court affirmed that decision in 2014. The Supreme Court, however, dismissed the murder charges in 2016 due to prosecution’s inability to provide sufficient proof concerning intent to kill. It reduced the murder charge to seven years but maintained his life sentence for rape.
News