Decades-old fugitive saga gets a twist as new lead turns to be false in Sukumara Kurup case

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.

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.

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 unlikely revival saga began with retired policeman Ali Akbar, a sub-inspector in the same station where the original first information report was filed in 1984 and who later reopened the case in 2017. Akbar claimed he had found Kurup alive, living as an Indian-origin Malaysian citizen, frequenting a particular hotel on most evenings.

“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. I submitted a report attesting the same, but no further action was taken at the time,” Akbar said.

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. “There is a hotel that he frequently visits, mostly in the evening hours. The information that I collected can be easily verified using modern technology,” he said.

Malayalam channel 24 News took the theory further, broadcasting photographs of a man it claimed as Kurup living in Brunei. The channel reported that Kurup worked in the construction sector, led an affluent life by pretending to be a Malayali-origin Malaysian citizen, and was in regular contact with his wife and son living in Abu Dhabi. The network alleged that the notorious fugitive was in his 80s and healthy.

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.

“The photo circulating on TV and social media is that of my elder brother Damodara Menon. Reports that it is Kurup are baseless. He is based in Brunei and is in his 80s,” a family member, Karunakara Menon, told local media.

The Keralam crime branch team also confirmed that the photo was that of Menon, not Kurup. 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.