A local court in Kozhikode on Thursday sent Jolly Joseph—the prime suspect in the death of six persons in a family at Koodathayi—and two others to police custody for six days. The three will now be produced before the court on October 16.
The Crime Branch of Kerala Police had demanded a 11-day custody of the three accused.
Jolly was arrested on October 5 over the death of her husband Roy Thomas in 2012 following consumption of cyanide-laced food. Police claimed her role in the death of five others, too, was revealed in the further investigation.
Forensic experts had exhumed mortal remains of the six victims from their graves and conducted post-mortem on October 4.
Among the two other accused, M.S. Mathew (44) is a close friend of Jolly while Praju Kumar (48) had allegedly supplied cyanide to Mathew who handed it over to Jolly.
Meanwhile, high-profile criminal lawyer Biju Antony Aloor aka B.A. Aloor said on Wednesday that he would defend Jolly in the case.
Jolly is accused of killing all the six by serving them cyanide-laced food between 2002 and 2016.
While Annamma Thomas had died in 2002, her husband Tom Thomas passed away six years later in 2008. Later, their son Roy Thomas died in 2011. Annamma's brother Mathew died in 2014 and two relatives—Sili and her one-year-old daughter—in 2016.
Jolly later married their relative Shaju, who was the husband of Sili and father of the one-year-old daughter who had died in 2016.
