Crime branch questions nurse who claims to have met Sukumara Kurup in 1988

Kottayam: Nearly four decades after Kerala’s most wanted man vanished without a trace, a woman who claims to have crossed paths with him in 1988 remains a person of continuing interest for investigators.Ratnamma Sivarajan, who says she met Sukumara Kurup — the prime accused in the 1984 Chacko murder case — in 1988, is still being periodically contacted by police, who continue to be in touch with her for any fresh lead that could crack a case that has defied resolution for over 40 years.Speaking to TOI, Ratnamma said crime branch officers visited her residence in Chingoly, near Harippad, three weeks ago. “The cops have been in touch with me since 1988,” she said.Recounting her encounter with Kurup, Ratnamma said she was pursuing her first-year nursing course at Bokaro General Hospital in Jharkhand at the time. “At the mess, the seniors told me that a Keralite man ‘who could speak 18 languages’ was admitted to the hospital with chest pain. They suspected the person was Sukumara Kurup,” she said.Ratnamma went to meet the man, who was admitted under the name Joshy. As a child, she lived near Kurup’s house in Cheriyanad and met him only once before — two days before the 1984 murder.

“Though he became uncomfortable after learning that my ancestral home was close to his, I failed to confirm whether it was him. It may be because he realised I had recognised him that he soon left the hospital,” she said.Since Bokaro had a large Keralite community, word of the sighting spread quickly, and police from Kerala travelled there to meet her. As she was home on vacation at the time, they spoke to her at her house, and officers have met her several times since.After completing her nursing studies, Ratnamma joined the same hospital and retired from service on March 31 this year. Now 60, she lives in Chingoly with her husband Sivarajan.“The police may be trying to reopen the case,” Ratnamma said, adding that she remains uncertain whether the latest round of questioning is aimed at closing the case file or reopening the decades-old investigation. Either way, her brush with Kurup continues to follow her.