In the sensational Jolly Joseph serial murders case that is unfolding in Kerala, investigating authorities have said that they have made a few crucial findings over the past few days.
Kozhikode rural Superintendent of Police KG Simon confirmed that 47-year-old Jolly had read extensively about cyanide and how it is used before allegedly poisoning the six members of her family.
The police say that in her confessions, Jolly had stated that she was inspired to use the lethal chemical after reading newspaper clippings and reports of cyanide deaths.
Simon also added that Jolly had done the most amount of planning on her fourth target - her husband’s uncle Mathew Manjadiyil - whom she allegedly killed by adding cyanide to his alcohol.
Following the death of Roy Thomas - Jolly’s first husband - in 2011, his uncle (Annamma’s brother) had expressed strong suspicions over it. According to Simon, Jolly had planned how to murder Mathew well in advance.
“Some relatives of the family who live in other districts suspect that she has attempted to poison them. They recall eating food prepared by her and falling seriously ill. They even went to a government hospital to get the food tested. However, the hospital authorities told them that to do so, they would need to first file a police complaint and get a case registered. They refrained from doing so as it would also get Jolly into trouble - she was after all a part of their family. Though they had their doubts, Jolly’s friendly demeanour confused them,” Simon told Asianet. According to the police, Jolly had also confessed that she had attempted to murder her former mother-in-law Annamma Thomas twice.
“She researched quite a bit on how to use cyanide. She told us that she used to use her hands to take the Cyanide and wash her hands later and that it was safe,” Simon added.
To learn how she procured the cyanide, the police had initially investigated the NIT Kozhikode campus, where Jolly claimed to have worked for 14 years. During these investigations, the police also learnt that Jolly would visit a tailoring shop, a beauty parlour, two churches and others places where she met people, under the pretext of going to work. The police will provide evidence of Jolly’s interactions and movements in court.
“Cyanide is not easy to procure. We searched the NIT campus and the labs to see if any cyanide was missing. They showed us correct records and it was clear that they did not have any cynaide missing. This led us to investigate other links and that is how we came to Mathew and Praji Kumar - the other accused in the death of Roy Thomas. We learnt that Mathew supplies cyanide and that twice, Jolly had procured cyanide,” Simon added. She also used to store the cyanide in small containers and keep it with her, Simon added.
The police have also learnt that Jolly had used sodium cyanide on her targets.
“Potassium cyanide is difficult to get and very expensive. Jolly got sodium cyanide for Rs 1,500 or more. This is also highly dangerous. There have been cases earlier where the liquid (water and cyanide mixture) used for gold wash was utilised to murder a person,” Simon added.
Speaking on the deaths, Simon also said that the frequency of Jolly’s alleged murders kept increasing and that if she had not been arrested, more deaths could probably have taken place.
“The gap between two deaths was six years, then it became three and then two and a half etc. The time frame was reducing,” he added.
Forty-seven-year-old Jolly Joseph is the prime suspect in the deaths of six members of the Ponnamattam family from Koodathayi in Kozhikode. Jolly is believed to have poisoned all the six deceased, which includes her former mother-in-law, father-in-law, husband, and former wife and child of her current husband, Shaju Thomas. The police are currently questioning Jolly and two others on their involvement in the deaths.
Rojo arrives for questioning
Meanwhile, Rojo Thomas, the complainant and US-based son of Annamma and Tom Thomas, arrived in Kochi for questioning in the case. According to reports, he arrived at the Nedumbassery International Airport on Monday and headed straight to his sister Renju’s house in Vaikom. Rojo, who had doubts regarding the deaths, had first filed a police complaint regarding the death of his brother, Roy Thomas. However, the case was closed stating the cause of death as suicide. It was Rojo’s second complaint that led to further probe in the case and the arrest of Jolly Joseph.