Kerala serial killings: CFL tests find no trace of cyanide in four bodies
The police said it was not a setback because in the earlier tests in the state traces were found only in two and it was difficult to find such evidence in old cases
The tests at the Central Forensic Laboratory (CFL) in Hyderabad failed to find traces of cyanide in exhumed remains of four bodies in the infamous Koodathayi serial killings in Kerala’s Kozhikode district in which a woman, Jolly Joseph, allegedly killed six of her relatives by poisoning them in a span of 14 years, said people aware of the development.
But, the police said it was not a setback because in the earlier tests in the state traces were found only in two and it was difficult to find such evidence in old cases.
A senior police officer, who is part of the investigating team, said they will approach the special court for permission to send remains in some advanced laboratories in the West.
“Samples were negative. We expected this. But we have a strong case against accused with enough evidence,” said the officer quoted above. When contacted, special public prosecutor in the case N K Unnikrishnan refused to make any comment.
Exhumed remains of Tom Thomas (father in law of Jolly), his wife Annamma Thomas (Jolly’s mother in law), Mathew Manchadiyil (her uncle) and one-year-old Alphine (daughter of Shaju who is Jolly’s second husband) were sent to the central forensic laboratory in 2020.
The new development surfaced at a time when the prosecution began proceedings in one of the death cases (Roy Mathew, Joy’s first husband) at a special court in Kozhikode. The charges against the accused were read out in the court last month and the trial is expected to begin on March 4. There are four accused in the case and the main accused Jolly faces charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, cheating and destruction of evidence.
The second and third accused, M Mathew and Priju Kumar, respectively, face charges of conspiracy and incitement. A jewellery owner and gold smith, they allegedly supplied cyanide to Jolly. And fourth accused K Manoj, a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) leader, faces charges of forgery and cheating for allegedly helping Jolly to make a fictitious will to grab family property. According to the chare-sheet, Jolly, daughter in-law of the Ponnamatam family, killed all six to snatch family property.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested Jolly in October 2019 on charges of killing six members of the Ponnamatam family in Koodathayi village (Kozhikode district) in a span of 14 years. These killings, which took place between 2002 and 2016, were planned and carried out with clinical precision, said the SIT.
The first victim was Annamma Thomas, Jolly’s mother-in-law and a retired teacher, in 2002. Then came her husband Tom Thomas, also a retired teacher, in 2008. Their son Roy Thomas (the first husband of Jolly) died in 2011 and another relative Mathew, the brother of Annamma, died in 2014. In 2016, Zacharia’s first wife Cily and their one- year-old child died under mysterious circumstances. Zacharia was Roy Thomas’ cousin and Cily and Jolly were close friends also.
All deaths were believed to be natural until 2018 when Roy Thomas’ brother Rojo Thomas insisted on an investigation based on the post mortem reports of Roy Thomas’ death (it showed death by cyanide poisoning) and documents provided by Jolly to the revenue department authorising transfer of the family’s property in her name. Later, all six bodies were exhumed and traces of poison were recovered from two of them after an intense forensic examination.
During the investigation the SIT also found that Jolly was faking her job; she had represented herself as a professor at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Kozhikode for 14 years. Her two children are among the witnesses and later her second husband Zacharia also turned an approver in the case. Jolly has been under judicial custody since her arrest in 2019. She tried to die by suicide in the jail by cutting her vein in February 2020 but was saved.
