Kerala serial murders: HC stays airing of TV series 'Koodathai'

The TV series was based on Jolly Joseph, the prime accused

(L) Jolly Joseph; (R) Those who were found dead under mysterious circumstances | Manoramaoline (L) Jolly Joseph; (R) Those who were found dead under mysterious circumstances | Manoramaoline

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed a private Malayalam television channel to stop the airing of an ongoing TV series based on the serial murders at Koodathai in Kozhikode district between 2002 and 2016. The court order came after a witness in the case, Mohammed, filed a plea, saying the TV series could affect the ongoing probe in the case.

The high court had earlier refused to stay the series titled Koodathai which began on January 13.

Police filed the first charge-sheet on January 1 in the sensational deaths of six members of a family over a 14 year period, with Jolly Joseph, who allegedly poisoned them to death, being named as the prime accused.

The deceased were: Tom Thomas, his wife Annamma, son Roy Thomas, relative Sily, her daughter Alphine and Annamma's brother Mathew.

The three others named in the over 1000-page charge sheet filed in the Roy Thomas murder case before a court here are: M S Mathew, a close friend of Jolly, Praji Kumar, a goldsmith who allegedly supplied cyanide to Mathew, who in turn gave it to Jolly and K Manoj, a former CPI(M) activist, who helped Jolly forge various documents.

There are 242 witnesses in the case and 322 documents were produced in the Thamarassery Munisiff magistrate court.

Eight years after Roy's death on September 30, 2011 following consumption of cyanide-laced food, Jolly and two others were arrested on October 5 last year as a Special Investigation Team began its probe into the six deaths that had  occurred between 2002-2016, following a complaint from Roy's US-based brother.

While Roy parents—mother Annamma Thomas died in 2002 and father Tom Thomas—died in 2008. Annamma's brother Mathew died in 2014 and two relatives Sili and her one year old daughter in 2016.

For years, Jolly had posed as a B.Tech lecturer in NIT Kozhikode. As investigations began, it was found she was not even a graduate and had fake degrees and fake NIT identity cards.

After Roy's death, Jolly had got married to Shaju, whose wife Sili and daugter were among the dead.

With inputs from PTI