How a full-sleeve shirt helped cops crack India's first murder-for-insurance case..

Chacko was forcefully intoxicated, poisoned and strangled to death and later the body was burnt inside an Ambassador car at night near Tannimukkam Puncha in Mavelikara.

Sukumara Kurup allegedly committed the crime to fake his own death and claim an insurance amount of ₹800,000, by killing Chacko, who bore a striking resemblance to him. It is assumed that Kurup fled the country after the incident, while two of his three accomplices, driver Ponnappan and brother-in-law Bhaskara Pillai, were sentenced to a life-term imprisonment.

His other accomplice, Chinnakkal Shahu, was arrested, but was later made an approver and released. He is the only living eye-witness of the murder of Chacko.

According to the police, Sukumara Kurup is still on the list of absconding accused since January 1984.The Chacko murder case is one of the longest-standing cases in the judicial history of Kerala. In 2018, Chacko's wife, Santhamma, told Bhaskaran that she forgives him and the others (including Kurup) when they met near the St Thomas Malankara Syrian Catholic Church at Chengannur.

The Chacko murder case is one case that caught the media's attention during the mid-2000s, when there were reports on Sukumara Kurup lookalikes from various parts of India. Since Kurup's remains still remain untraced, it's unclear as to whether he's dead or alive. Victims of his crime believe he could be alive and well in a foreign country based on what the investigating officer wrote while closing the case after 12 years of search (1984 to 1996): Kurup had fled from the country with the 72 hours head start he got and with possible help from political allies, cause after the murder came to light he was able to narrowly escape multiple times from the police

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