Thiruvananthapuram: Though the notorious fugitive Sukumara Kurup was once nabbed by the police, he escaped due to the lapses on the part of the police, revealed former DGP Alexander Jacob. The police failed to identify Kurup and let him go. Kurup had shaved his beard and concealed a mole on his face when the police nabbed him from Alappuzha. After four hours, he was released.

However, that incident cannot be a complete failure on the part of the police. Because, the facilities of fingerprint examination were not very common then. The result would be received only after four days, Alexander Jacob said.

Kurup was held by the police soon after it was confirmed that Chacko was murdered. He was taken into custody from his under-construction house in Alappuzha. The police took him after noticing a person disguised as a saint looking at the house of Kurup. Though he was interrogated, the officers did not find anything suspicious and let him go after collecting his fingerprint.

They realized it was actually Kurup when they cross-checked the fingerprint with Kurup’s original fingerprint obtained from LIC policy. By this time, he had absconded. The police continued search in Ayodhya and Bhopal, but in vain.

As he had a critical disease, he might have succumbed to the disease before 2000, Alexander Jacob opined. George Joseph who closed the Crime Branch case found that Sukumara Kurup fled from the country after the murder came to light.

Later, it was confirmed that Sukumara Kurup died after probing into the address of a person by name Joshi in Pune. He had sought treatment in Narayanpur Hospital in Bhopal on January 14, 1990. The doctors told police that he was in a critical state and would not have survived for over 24 hours. It was verified that Joshi and Kurup are the same person. However, the police could not find out where the body was cremated.