Soumya rape-murder: Govindachamy caught after escaping from Kannur jail

Govindachamy, the convict in the sensational Soumya rape and murder case, who escaped from the high-security block of Kannur Central Jail in the early hours of Friday, was caught by the Kerala Police.

He was apprehended in a search in an abandoned plot at Talap in Kannur.

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The escape took place around 1.20 am. Govindachamy, who was put alone in a high-security cell, managed to cut through the iron bars of the cell and used clothes from the washing area to tie together as a rope to climb down from the prison wall.

Govindachamy, a native of Karur in Tamil Nadu, attacked Somya in the women’s compartment of a train going from Ernakulam to Shoranur on February 1, 2011. The police found that Govindachamy had thrown Soumya out of the train and brutally raped her. Soumya, who was seriously injured in the attack and rape died on February 6 at Thrissur medical College hospital.

Govindachami, the handicapped (he has only one arm) habitual offender from Karur in Tamil Nadu, was already facing several theft cases in Salem area when the Kerala police arrested him in February 2011.

In November 2011, the Thrissur Fast Track court found Govindachami guilty in the rape and murder and awarded him death sentence. Later, the Kerala High court upheld the lower court verdict.In September 2016, the Supreme Court exonerated him of the murder charges and cancelled the death sentence, and upheld the life sentence.