Kozhikode: In a shocking turn of events, prosecution faced a major setback in the Koodathayi serial homicide cases as the presence of cyanide could not be spotted in the four dead bodies. The latest report of the National Forensic Science Laboratory came up as the trial of murder of Roy Thomas, husband of accused Jolly Joseph, is about to begin on March 6.
The chargesheet recorded that the prime accused Jolly used a dog poison- ‘Dog Kill’ to murder her mother-in-law Annamma Thomas and used cyanide to kill the other five victims. However, the forensic lab report recorded the presence of cyanide only in the mortal remains of Roy and Sily, who were killed last in the series. The latest report of the forensic lab was prepared after examining the bodies of Annamma Thomas, Tom Thomas, Alphine Shaju and Mathew Manjadiyil. The bodies were exhumed by opening the graves in 2019, years after the murders.
The investigation team had found that Annamma was killed by serving mutton soup mixed with the dog poison, which Jolly bought from a veterinary hospital. Police have obtained the documents and other evidence proving this.
Meanwhile, the hearing of Jolly’s children, father and brother has been scheduled for March 6. In the initial phase, as many as 158 witnesses will be heard from March 6 to May 18. Police had recorded the arrest of the accused in the case in October 2019. Marad special additional sessions judge SR Shyamlal has decided to commence the trial. Jolly has filed a petition in the Kerala High Court demanding to change the trial court. Another petition submitted by the accused to review the special court’s order scrapping her request to acquit her from the Roy Thomas murder case is also under the consideration of the High Court.
A jewellery owner MS Mathew (Shaji), goldsmith Prajikumar, and Manoj Kumar, who was accused of preparing a fake will are the other accused in the case. The chargesheet noted that Jolly killed Roy Thomas by serving food mixed with cyanide to marry another person eyeing financial gains. Out of the six people killed during the period between 2002 and 2014, only the autopsy of Jolly’s first husband, Roy Thomas, was done. The postmortem revealed the presence of cyanide as the reason for his death. Though the remains of the bodies of five others were examined at Kozhikode Regional Chemical Laboratory in January 2020, the cyanide presence was found only in the body of Sily, the first wife of Jolly’s second husband, Shaju.
It was then that the samples collected from the bodies of the four others were sent to the Central Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad. As per the case charge sheet, the main accused Jolly murdered Annamma Thomas by lacing ‘dog kill’ poison in her food and the others by giving them cyanide. It was while forging a duplicate will with the aim of snatching all the family property of her husband Roy and the complaints filed therein that led to the unravelling of the shocking murders, which otherwise were considered normal deaths. According to the charge sheet, Jolly Thomas, daughter-in-law of the Ponnamattom family, killed the six people to gain ancestral property. Their deaths happened in the period between 2002 to 2014.
The first murder happened in 2002. Annamma Thomas collapsed to her death after having mutton soup. Six years later, Annamma’s husband Tom Thomas, and three years later their son Roy Thomas, died in a similar fashion. The fourth death was that of M.M. Mathew, brother of Annamma Mathew. The very next month, Alphine, the one-year-old daughter of Shaju, died. In 2016, Sily, the wife of Shaju, too breathed her last. Among these, it was the death of Roy Thomas that raised doubts of foul play. The presence of cyanide was confirmed in the post-mortem report. Until then, it was considered a case of suicide. Later, it became clear that Jolly was deliberately attempting to paint Roy’s death as a case of suicide. The complaint regarding the fraudulent will, furnished by Rojo Thomas, brother of Roy, and submitted to the Vadakara Rural SP, led to the unravelling of the murder series.
After a three-month-long investigation led by then Rural SP K.G. Simon, the bodies of the victims were exhumed by breaking open the grave in 2019. Jolly was arrested on the very next day. M S Mathew, Jolly’s friend who procured the cyanide for her, and Prijukumar, a goldsmith who gave the cyanide to Mathew, were also arrested. The first accused Jolly and the second accused M S Mathew are currently in jail. A charge sheet has been submitted in all six cases. Five of them state that the deaths occurred due to the intake of cyanide. The discovery of cyanide in the internal organs of Sily happened after the charge sheet was submitted. The traces of cyanide were initially found in the body of Roy Thomas. Now, the test results of the internal organs of the remaining four persons have come out.
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