Kerala jailbreak: Officials clueless on how Govindachamy escaped Kannur prison; photo shows him hiding in well | Kozhikode News

KANNUR: Govindachamy alias Charley Thomas, convicted of rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 2011, escaped from the high-security block of the Kannur Central Prison early on Friday. The 41-year-old life convict, whose left hand is amputated, was apprehended by police within hours. He was found hiding inside a well on the premises of National Sample Survey Office at Thalap, police said.Kannur city police commissioner P Nithin Raj said the jailbreak occurred between 4.15 and 6.30am. Jail authorities discovered his absence during a morning inspection, after assistant prison officer trainees, who were out training, found clothes hanging from the prison wall along the national highway.Govindachamy had cut through the iron bars of his cell using a bar cutter and fashioned a rope out of cloth and bedsheets, police said.Jail officials cluelessJail officials are clueless on how he managed to scale the prison wall without assistance. The six-metre wall of the prison is topped with an electric fence, which is believed to have been non-functional at the time. Three prison officers on duty at the time have been suspended following a preliminary inquiry that found lapses on their part.Police launched a statewide manhunt soon after, and apprehended Govindachamy following a tip-off from a local resident, Vinoj, who spotted him in Thalap in the morning. “I was riding my two-wheeler when I noticed a man walking slowly on the left side of the road. He looked like a beggar, and we exchanged glances briefly. I had already heard about Govindachamy’s escape from prison, and something about the man I saw made me suspicious... When I called out his name, he immediately bolted into a narrow lane and jumped over the compound wall of an under-construction building,” Vinoj said.Police later confirmed his identity after reviewing CCTV footage from the area. Based on this, a large contingent of officers, along with residents, intensified the search. A dog squad was also deployed. M Unnikrishnan, a NSSO staffer, spotted the convict in the well while inspecting the premises. Police, assisted by residents, apprehended Govindachamy.He was then taken to the Kannur town station and, after a medical examination, brought to the central prison for evidence collection. He was produced before the Kannur judicial first class magistrate court and remanded in custody for 14 days. He is likely to be shifted to the Viyyur high-security prison in Thrissur.Govindachamy is a native of Virudhachalam in Tamil Nadu. The 2011 case had shocked the nation and sparked a debate over women’s safety on public transport. The victim, who was travelling alone on a passenger train from Ernakulam to Shoranur, was pushed out of the moving train and raped on the railway track. She later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.