A woman who is allegedly a 'close friend' of Jolly Joseph, the prime accused in the Koodathayi murders, appeared before the Special Investigation Team at Vadakara on Friday.
The police had earlier found several photographs of Jolly along with this woman, identified as Rani, from the mobile phone seized from the former soon after her arrest nearly a fortnight ago over charges of killing her first husband Roy Thomas.
The SIT hopes that Rani will be able to throw more light on the life of Jolly who introduced herself as a lecturer at National Institute of Technology Calicut. Rani used to run a tailoring shop, now defunct, near the NIT. She was present along with Jolly at the 'Ragam' cultural festival held at NIT this year.
The police are in possession of photographs of Jolly, wearing an NIT identity card, along with Rani near the festival stage. Rani, who was on the run, surrendered before the police team on Friday.
After initial inquiry, the police had found that Sulekha, who runs a beauty parlour near the NIT, and Jayashri S. Warrier, a Revenue Department employee, were also close friends of Jolly. Jolly was reluctant to speak about these people to the cops, police sources say.
Rani is being interrogated at the SIT base on the precincts of Vadakara Rural SP's office.
This article was first published in Onmanorama