Achamma alias Reji, a murder convict held after 27 years on the run, was produced before Additional District Court-II, Mavelikara, on Monday. Judge K.N. Ajith Kumar “remanded” her to the Women’s Prison and Correctional Home, Attakulangara in Thiruvananthapuram to serve the life term sentence handed down by the Kerala High Court on September 11, 1996 for murdering Mariyamma (61) of Mankamkuzhy, near Mavelikara, in 1990.
Reji had gone into hiding within hours of the High Court declaring her guilty. She was nabbed from Adivad in Pallarimangalam grama panchayat in Ernakulam, where she lived and worked under the fake name Mini Raju, by a police team led by Mavelikara Circle Inspector C. Sreejith.
Mariyamma was found stabbed to death at her house on February 21, 1990. The murderer took away her 3.5 sovereign gold wedding chain and earring after slitting her ear. Reji, then 18-years-old, had worked as a housemaid at Mariyamma’s house. Prior to the murder, the family sacked her from the job but she continued to visit Mariyamma and her husband Pappachan at their home. Though the police arrested Reji of Arunoottimangalam, near Mavelikara, in the case, the Additional District Court, Mavelikara acquitted her in 1993. The prosecution filed an appeal in the High Court, which resulted in the guilty verdict.
After the initial attempts yielded negative results, the efforts to nab Reji was renewed recently after Additional District Court-II, Mavelikara issued a warrant against the murder convict. A special investigation team was constituted under the leadership of Chengannur Dy.SP M.K. Binukumar.
The police said that after the High Court verdict, the convict had lived and worked at several places in Kottayam. Reji married a Thuckalay native in 1999 and moved to Tamil Nadu. She came back with her family and worked at Kothamangalam before shifting to Adivad, where she worked as a sales girl for the past five years.
