Govindachamy's jail escape: CM orders special committee to investigate; Kerala to open new prisons?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has directed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the escape of notorious convict Govindachamy from Kannur Central Jail. A police investigation and department-level inspections are underway at present. The separate comprehensive investigation is underway in addition to this.

Former Kerala High Court judge Justice (retd) CN Ramachandran Nair and former state police chief Jacob Punnoose are in charge of the investigation. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting called by the Chief Minister in the wake of the incident. The Chief Minister directed to complete the ongoing investigations at the earliest.

Chief Secretary Dr. A. Jayathilak, Police Chief Ravada A. Chandrasekhar, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Bishwanath Sinha, Public Works Department Secretary K. Biju, Prisons Chief Balram Kumar Upadhyay and Intelligence Additional DGP P. Vijayan participated in the meeting.

It was decided that electric fencing should be fully operational in the four major prisons in the state within the next three months. Intelligent CCTV that can capture detailed footage will be installed in the four major prisons. The process for this will begin immediately. A new central prison will be started in the current situation where there are more prisoners in the prisons than they can handle. The meeting also decided that efforts will be made to find land in the Kottayam and Pathanamthitta areas for this.