Kottayam: Even as Kerala is yet again gripped by curiosity over 'India's most wanted fugitive' Sukumara Kurup in the wake of a film based on his life and crime, rumours of his presence at a shelter home at Arpookara, near Kottayam town, added to the hysteria.
A Crime Branch team from Alappuzha dashed to the shelter home of the Navjeevan Trust on Friday and ascertained the identity of a 62-year-old inmate. The rumours were quelled as the investigators found out that the man was not Sukumara Kurup, notorious for the 1984 Chacko murder case.
The man at the centre of the swirling rumour, which spread on the very day the film 'Kurup' released in theatres, was admitted to the shelter home in 2017.
He claimed his native place as Pannivizha in Adoor in Pathanamthitta district.
Sukumara Kurup's native place is not far, at Cheriyanad village in the Chengannur taluk of neighbouring Alappuzha district.
Adding to the mystery the inmate claimed he was once in the Indian Air Force where Sukumara Kurup too was employed before he left to the Middle East. He had arrived from Lucknow.
Navjeevan is a reputed NGO engaged in the rescue and rehabilitation of the old and orphans faced with neglect. The trustee and founder of Navjeevan P U Thomas said the inmate was adopted by his organisation after he was cured of disease.
His relatives often visit him, Thomas added.