Kasaragod: Popular Front of India (PFI) activist Savad Meerankutty (38), who purportedly punished a college teacher for alleged 'blasphemy' by chopping off his right hand, claimed he was an orphan to marry a woman from Manjeshwar, said a top police officer in Kasaragod.

After the attack on Newman College professor T J Joseph in Thodupuzha on July 4, 2010, Savad went into hiding. He remained a fugitive for 13 years and a half till NIA sleuths crashed into his rented house at Kannur's Mattannur town in the early hours of Wednesday. 

Savad was living with his wife and two children, a 5-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. He had introduced himself as Shajahan to neighbours at Beram in Mattannur. But Savad used his original name to marry a woman from a poor family at Kunjathur in Manjeshwar. "But he spun a story that he was an orphan," said the officer.

Six years into hiding, Savad met the woman's father at a mosque in Ullal, a village on the outskirts of Mangaluru and the border of Kasaragod. The man was poor and had three daughters of marriageable age, the officer said. He married off his eldest daughter to Savad, who was then 31 years old.

After marriage, Savad and his wife stayed at Manjeshwar for one month and then moved out to another place. On November 14, 2018, a daughter was born to the couple and Savad used his original name (Savadh M M) on the girl's birth certificate.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had put a bounty of Rs 4 lakh on him and raised it to Rs 10 lakh in 2023. But Savad -- a native of Asamanoor in Ernakulam -- escaped to Bengaluru after the crime returned and blended with society.

According to residents of Beram, Savad's family moved into a rented house there two years ago. His wife was pregnant with their second child. He worked as a carpenter in houses in the locality. "Savad kept to himself but came across as a decent guy. He did not indulge in loose talk and limited his answers to the questions asked," said Noushad, a social worker. As a carpenter, he was earning around Rs 1,200 as wage, he said.

He claimed that Savad was planning to move to another locality by the end of January. But the NIA raided his house before that.

The police officer from Kasaragod said the wife did not know of Savad's past. She came to know of the hand-chopping case when he was arrested, he added.