Brunei claim reignites Sukumara Kurup buzz, years after earlier sightings led nowhere

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police have not yet confirmed that fugitive Sukumara Kurup is alive in Brunei under a different identity, despite fresh reports claiming he has been traced in the East Asian country.

The latest reports surfaced just as the Kerala Police were preparing to conclude a 42-year-old investigation after arriving at the assessment that Kurup was unlikely to be alive. The case file was to be closed and a report handed over to the Crime Branch chief. 

Police have not yet given an official response on reports about him being alive. The Home Department, too, is not understood to have received any confirmed information establishing that Kurup is alive abroad.

What is the police stand now?

The police position, as of now, is that there is no confirmation that the man shown in the latest reports is Sukumara Kurup.

Police are also understood to have no verified information about Kurup living under an assumed name in Brunei.

Reports had claimed that Kurup was living in Brunei after changing his name and other identifying details and keeping away from the Indian and Malayali communities there.

However, checks involving Malayali contacts in Brunei have reportedly raised another possibility: the elderly man seen in the images could be a person from Thrissur, rather than Kurup.

Police may examine this information and verify the identity of the person shown in the latest photographs. But officials cannot proceed solely on the basis of unverified reports or social media claims.

What triggered the latest buzz?

The renewed speculation follows reports of a person claiming to be a cyber expert who allegedly traced a Malayali man in Brunei who bears a resemblance to Kurup.

According to the reports, the expert used hundreds of possible images generated with the help of artificial intelligence, based on available photographs of Kurup, to narrow down a possible match.

A photograph of an elderly Malayali man, reportedly taken in 2023, subsequently emerged. The reports claimed that he was living under an unusual name on the Malaysia-Brunei border.

The cyber expert is also reported to have traced the man's residence and a hotel where he allegedly went for food. The reports said the person was followed from the hotel to his residence, with the help of Malayalis living in Brunei.

Another claim was that information about Kurup's relatives and their phone contacts had been accessed to establish that the man in Brunei was still maintaining contact with people in Kerala.

Why has the case resurfaced now?

The timing has added to the interest around the latest claims.

For decades, there have been periodic reports and rumours that Kurup was spotted at different locations. The Crime Branch has investigated several such leads in the past, but has not found evidence sufficient to establish that he was alive or to locate him.

The latest information therefore comes at a particularly significant point in the investigation. Police were preparing to end the 42-year-old search after reaching the conclusion that Kurup was probably no longer alive.

The emergence of a photograph of a man allegedly living under another identity in Brunei has now created a fresh lead that could require verification before the case is formally closed.

What happened to Sukumara Kurup?

Gopalakrishna Kurup, known as Sukumara Kurup, has been wanted since 1984 in the murder of Chacko, allegedly committed as part of a plot to obtain insurance money.

Kurup disappeared after the crime and has remained one of Kerala Police's most prominent fugitives. Interpol has also been involved in efforts to trace him.

From 1984 to 1996, Kerala Police conducted extensive searches for Kurup across India. Information received by investigators suggested that he had stayed in places including Mumbai, Delhi, Bihar and Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, allegedly using disguises and false identities.

Police records state that in 1990, he was believed to have stayed near Mumbai's Santacruz airport under the name Joshi.

Earlier sightings never produced proof

The latest Brunei claim is not the first time Kurup has reportedly been spotted after his disappearance.

During the earlier investigation, a doctor who examined a person believed to be Kurup reportedly recorded that he had suffered from heart disease. The doctors had also reportedly assessed that his chances of surviving for a long period while remaining in hiding were limited.

In another instance, an Alappuzha native, Ratnamma, who worked as a nurse at a hospital in Kolkata, told police that she had seen Kurup there. But by the time investigators reached the location, the person had left.

Similar leads and sightings have emerged over the years, but none produced conclusive evidence establishing Kurup's whereabouts.

What is likely to happen next?

The immediate issue is likely to be verification of the latest Brunei lead, rather than any conclusion that Kurup has been found.

If the person shown in the photographs can be conclusively identified as someone else, the latest claim would lose its basis. If there are credible details establishing a connection to Kurup, investigators could examine the lead further.

The reported identification of the man as possibly a Thrissur native is therefore significant, although that too remains to be officially established.

For now, the police position remains unchanged: there is no confirmed evidence that Sukumara Kurup is alive in Brunei or elsewhere.