A Kerala panchayat is trying to take over an abandoned plot with a half-built house belonging to the state’s most wanted fugitive, Sukumara Kurup, who allegedly killed a man 40 years ago to fake his own death in an attempted insurance scam.

Aged around 76 now, Kurup — the subject of several Malayalam films, the most recent being the Dulquer Salman-starrer Kurup in 2021 — has an Interpol red-corner notice against him.

Kurup, then employed in the Gulf, allegedly murdered Chacko in Kerala with three accomplices on January 21, 1984, to secure a Rs 8-lakh life insurance payment, then a huge sum.

However, the police solved the case in three weeks and the money was never paid. Kurup’s seven-bedroom dream house stands unfinished on a 20-cent (8,700sqft) plot off NH66, opposite Vandanam Medical College in
Ambalapuzha.

The house could now be converted into a panchayat office or animal husbandry centre.

Kurup had allegedly teamed up with Bhaskara Pillai, his brother-in-law; Chinnakkal Shahu, who had worked with him in the Gulf; and car driver Ponnappan; for the crime.

According to the police, the trio forced Chacko to drink, strangled him, disfigured his face, placed the body behind the wheels of an Ambassador car in a field near Mavelikara and set it on fire, after leaving some markers of Kurup’s identity. Kurup then disappeared from the scene.

While Shahu turned approver, the other two men were convicted and sentenced to life terms.

It is believed that some of Kurup’s close friends advised him to surrender to the police, but he wasn’t convinced.

Several police teams have travelled across the country over the years to hunt for Kurup following incorrect tip-offs about sightings. He is believed to have fled the country.

The CPM-controlled Ambalapuzha North panchayat in Alappuzha district has been trying to take the property over since 2017. Recently, state government officials visited the site as part of preliminary procedures to convert the ownership of property to the local body.

“Sukumara Kurup’s son had failed to secure the property since it is still registered in the name of the previous owner (from whom Kurup appears to have acquired it),” panchayat president S. Haris told The Telegraph on Thursday.

“The abandoned real estate should ideally be state property since there are no claimants, nor have land taxes been paid for 40 years. Recently, the panchayat submitted a proposal to the chief minister during the Nava Kerala Sadas,” Haris said.

The Nava Kerala Sadas (New Kerala Conference) programme, led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was a cabinet on wheels that covered all the Assembly constituencies in 36 days as a public outreach to receive complaints and suggestions.