Thiruvananthapuram: Ending weeks of speculation as to who was funding the legal battle to save the convict in a sensational murder case in Kerala, the lawyer for the convict revealed that the drug mafia was funding the legal expenses.
The case relates to the murder of Soumya, a young woman who was due to be married soon, in February 2011.
According to prosecution, she was travelling home in a local passenger train when Govindachamy, a one-armed habitual offender from neighbouring Tamil Nadu state entered the ladies’ compartment and accosted her. She fell off the train and was allegedly raped near the tracks. She was taken to hospital but succumbed to her injuries after a few days.
Govindachamy was handed the death sentence by a lower court, but India’s apex court last month commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, pointing out that there was no clinching evidence that Soumya was pushed out of the train.
The lawyer who got the favourable judgement for Govindachamy, advocate B.A. Aloor, was immediately in the limelight, and there had been widespread speculation regarding the source of funding for Govindachamy who held no regular job.
Aloor told journalists on Saturday that a robbery attempt had led to the murder. “From the beginning, Govindachamy’s intention was to commit a robbery. One will have to say that the rape story has been fabricated by police,” he said.
Aloor revealed that it was the drug mafia operating in Panvel area in Mumbai that had given him the brief for Govindachamy’s case.
“Govindachamy was not only committing robbery in trains but was selling drugs and such other things, and was associated with those peddling drugs in Mumbai and Tamil Nadu,” Aloor said.
He said a team from Panvel in Mumbai, which included people from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, had given Govindachamy’s legal brief to him and asked him not to reveal who was behind the legal support for Govindachamy. The gang is believed to be committing crimes in and around trains and railway stations.
From the time that Govindachamy had got the backing of a competent legal team, there had been speculation in Kerala as to who was funding the legal expenses for the convict.
