Kochi/Kannur | The opposition Congress-led UDF on Friday slammed the Left government in Kerala over the jailbreak of notorious criminal Govindachamy, alias Govindaswamy, serving a life sentence in the sensational 2011 Soumya murder case.
The opposition termed the government as "incompetent" and alleged that "inside help" was provided for the jailbreak to the convict, who was caught later from within the Kannur city limits.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan alleged that the Kannur central jail was actually "ruled by the prisoners," many of whom were "favourites" of the Left government.
"These prisoners have the latest mobile phones and food of their choice is provided to them. We have raised these points earlier also," he said.
Regarding the jailbreak, Satheesan questioned how the convict got so many clothes to make a rope, how did he climb the walls with only one good arm, as his left arm is missing a hand, from where did he get the tools to cut through the bars of his cell and why there was a delay in informing the police about the escape.
"The golden hours of investigation were lost due to the delay in informing the police. The convict was caught due to the vigilance of the public. It is a humiliating incident for the government," he claimed.
He also joked about how Govindachamy could climb the walls with only one good hand. "We have not even seen Tarzan swinging from ropes with one hand," he said .
Alleging inside help to the convict, Satheesan said that all materials for a jailbreak were provided to Govindachamy.
Kannur MP and former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief, K Sudhakaran, termed the government as "incompetent and shameless" and blamed it for the jailbreak.
He also demanded a CBI probe into the escape and alleged the possibility of inside help.
CPI(M) MLA M Rajagopalan also called for a "comprehensive probe" into the escape, saying it needs to be found out how the prisoner climbed over multiple walls of the jail.
At the same time, he also claimed that there were extensive security arrangements at the prison.
41-year-old Govindachamy was caught from a well near a derelict building in Thalap within Kannur city limits around 10.30 am, hours after his jailbreak.
According to the police, he escaped between 4.15 am and 6.30 am as per prison CCTV footage.
