Nine years after Sukumara Kurup, the most wanted criminal in Kerala, absconded after committing a brutal murder, another convict in a murder that took place in the same police station limit of Mavelikara in Alappuzha went on the run. Achamma aka Reji (51) went into hiding on September 11, 1995, soon after she was convicted by the High Court in the murder of 61-year-old Mariyamma. Though Kurup remains untraceable even after 39 years, Achamma was nabbed by the Mavelikara police on Sunday, June 25.
On February 21, 1990, Mariyamma was found stabbed to death at her house near Mavelikara. The victim’s gold chain and earrings were missing, and her ears were slit. “She was stabbed with a kitchen knife multiple times. The cause of death was the deep wound on her neck,” Mavelikara police inspector C Sreejith told TNM. Reji, who was a domestic worker at Mariyamma’s house, was initially acquitted in the case by a lower court. Later, in an appeal filed by the prosecution, the High Court convicted her.
Reji was living under the alias Mini Raju in Adivad of Ernakulam district, from where she was nabbed 27 years after the conviction. Previous investigation teams in the 1990s and 2000s had visited cities in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu in search of Reji. Recently, the Mavelikara Additional District Sessions Court issued a warrant to nab Reji at the earliest. Following this, an investigation team was formed and they geared up the search for the convict.
“It was tough as we had no clue in hand, other than a photo from an old newspaper clipping and an address in the case file. There were rumours that she had died of COVID-19, following which we collected data of those who died of COVID and unidentified persons who died. But none of that got us anywhere,” the officer said.
The next task for the police was to find out where Reji had been immediately before she went into hiding. It was found that before she went on the run, she was employed as a domestic worker in two houses in Kottayam district under the name Mini.
“Later we learned that she got married to a construction worker from Tamil Nadu and shifted to Thuckalay in Kanyakumari district. A scientific and technical investigation followed, and it was found that Reji, disguised as Mini Raju, was living with her family at Adivad near Pothanikkad, Pallarimangalam,” the inspector said. She had been working as a saleswoman in a textile shop in Adivad for the past five years.