In a marathon nine hour sitting, Kerala police on Tuesday recorded the statement of Rojo, the US-based brother of deceased Roy Thomas (husband of Jolly Thomas) in the Koodathayi cyanide serial murders. Probe into the case relating to the suspicious deaths of six members of a family over a 14 year period from 2002 began on Rojo's complaint. The statement of Renji, Rojo's sister, was also recorded. Rojo, who arrived in Kerala from the US on Monday, appeared before investigating officers at Vatakara this morning with Renji and was questioned in detail. According to a report in Manoramaonline, Rojo stated that Jolly had attempted to murder Renji. Since he was in America, he had escaped the attempts. He stated that, whenever he visited Kerala, he never stayed at the Ponnamattom home, rather opting to stay at a hotel or his wife's place. The publication reported that Renji, in a statement to the police, said that she had once felt unwell after consuming a medicinal potion that Jolly had handed over, and that she felt normal only after consuming litres of water.
Following a confession by Jolly Thomas, the main accused in the infamous Koodathayi serial murders in Kerala, that she had stored cyanide at her home, an investigation group conducted raids at her home. The poison was found stored in a small bottle, covered with cloth, among old cutlery in the kitchen, reported Manoramaonline. According to the report, Jolly was planning to consume the poison and commit suicide. The Crime Branch section of Kerala police had earlier produced the three main accused in the sensational cyanide murders case before the Thamarassery magistrate court. Jolly, according to the police, had named two co-conspirators—M.S Mathew and Praju Kumar. Reportedly, it was one of the co-accused who procured the cyanide. Goldsmiths use cyanide to extract the yellow metal.
Jolly Thomas, wife of Roy Thomas who died in 2011 at Koodathayi in Kerala's Kozhikode district, had earlier admitted to the murders of six members of her family—retired educational department officer P. Tom Thomas (66) his wife Annamma (57), Jolly's husband and the duo's son Roy Thomas (40), Sily Shaju (44), wife of Tom Thomas's brother's son Shaju Skaria, her two-year-old daughter Alphine, and Annamma's brother Mathew Manjadiyil (68).
The investigating team has summoned Shaju Skaria, who remarried Jolly after the death of his wife, for interrogation. The team reached Shaju’s house at Pulikkayam and asked him to appear at the Rural SP’s ofce at Vadakara. Shaju was summoned again after discrepancies were found in his and Jolly's statements.
The news hit headlines after eerie similarities between all the six deaths, in a span of 14 years, came to the fore. In all the cases, traces of cyanide had been found and it had been a case of slow poisoning, police said. "We found that the Roy's death had occurred due to cyanide, while the wife had claimed he had died of cardiac arrest." Kozhikode rural superintendent of police K.G. Simon told reporters that Jolly was arrested in connection with the murder of her husband Roy, with whom she did not have a good relationship.
The accused reportedly admitted to the police that she poisoned her husband. Each of the murders had different motives. Police said the first victim Annamma Thomas, who was the power centre of the family, was killed to claim her money, while it is suspected that Tom Thomas, the retired government employee, was murdered to get more share of the property.
