One winter morning in January 1984, Sukumara Kurup strangled a man who bore some resemblance to him, burnt his body near a field in Alappuzha and faked his own death – in the process committing one of India’s first insurance crimes.
The Keralam crime branch team also confirmed that the photo was that of Menon, not Kurup. However, subsequent police investigation unearthed the conspiracy and revealed that the victim was Chacko. The punishment was confirmed later by the high court.
For over four decades, Kurup’s proven brutality and mythical escape became the subject of countless stories, movies, television plots and reams of neighbourhood gossip. The police believed it futile to search for the elusive fugitive. “There is a hotel that he frequently visits, mostly in the evening hours. Bijoy Thomas, special branch assistant commissioner of police, visited the family in Thrissur to record their statement. “Preliminary findings show that it is Damodara Menon. We will relay it to higher authorities. Though multiple teams of the police fanned out across the state and country looking for Kurup, he remained elusive. Bhaskara Pillai, Kurup’s co-brother and their driver Ponnappan were convicted by a sessions court and given life imprisonment. Both are out of jail after finishing their sentences.
This week, a claim by a police officer who investigated the case in 2017 that Kurup was still alive in Brunei, and a photo of a hirsute man with neatly combed hair released by a Malayalam channel, kicked the police into action and rumour mills into overdrive – only for the authorities to conclude that one of Keralam’s most-wanted men was probably still in the wind, or dead.
The former police officer said Kurup was living as an Indian-origin Malaysian citizen in Brunei for years and nudged the police to arrest him. The information that I collected can be easily verified using modern technology,” he said. The investigation on Kurup will continue,” he said.
“I, and another officer, travelled to a lot of places that were associated with Kurup’s life both in mufti and in uniform and collected a lot of evidence. We got information from some of his family members that he was indeed alive. “The photo circulating on TV and social media is that of my elder brother Damodara Menon. Reports that it is Kurup are baseless.
I submitted a report attesting the same, but no further action was taken at the time,” Akbar said. He is based in Brunei and is in his 80s,” a family member, Karunakara Menon, told local media. But on Friday, a family based in Thrissur said that the man, whose photo and passport were aired on TV, was actually Damodara Menon, not Kurup.
