A day after Jolly Joseph, the prime suspect in the serial cyanide killings at Koodathayi in Kozhikode district of Kerala, admitted to have committed all the six murders, Kerala DGP Loknath Behera on Saturday said that collecting evidence would prove challenging in the case. The case was more complicated than it appeared, but the preliminary investigation has been satisfactory, Behera said.
Reportedly, the police have registered separate cases for each of the six murders. Initially the case of Jolly's husband Roy Thomas's unnatural death was decided to be reprobed. But this case was registered at the Kodenchery police station in 2011. Now, based on legal advice, it has been decided to file FIRs for the other five cases.
The case pertaining to the death of Jolly's second husband Shaju's former wife Sily was registered at Thamarassery police station, while the other four cases were filed at Kodenchery police station.
On Friday, it was reported that Jolly admitted to having pursued two murder attempts on Sily. While confessing that she committed all the six murders, Jolly corrected the police version saying that she killed her mother-in-law Annamma Thomas by lacing her soup with pesticide and not cyanide.
Meanwhile, the Kerala police have widened the probe team with the induction of one more DSP and seven new inspectors. Five inspectors have been put in
charge of the investigation. Three DSPs have also been tasked with supervising the probe.
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District Crime Branch DSP R. Haridas would continue to be the probe officer in Roy Thomas’ murder case. Vatakara control room inspector Jineesh Kumar, and Koduvally SHO inspector P. Chandramohan would also be included in the team.
Annamma Thomas' death would be probed by Perambra SHO inspector K.K. Biju and Tom Thomas' death would be probed by Kuttyadi SHO inspector N. Sunil Kumar. Vatakara DSP Prince Abraham would supervise these probes.
Alphine's murder would be probed by Thiruvambadi SHO inspector Shaju Joseph and supervised by Thamarassery DSP K.P. Abdul Rasaq. Mathew Manjadiyil's death would be probed by Koyilandi SHO inspector Unnikrishnan and Sily's murder by coastal SHO B.K. Siju. V. Venugopal would supervise this probe.
(With inpust from Onmanorama)
