In a latest development in the Jolly Joseph case, high profile criminal lawyer BA Aloor has confirmed that he will be representing the 47-year-old woman who is the prime suspect in the deaths of 6 people in her family.
Mumbai based Aloor made news in 2016, when he represented ‘beggar’ Govindachamy alias Charly who sexually assaulted a 23-year old woman in Kerala and left her dead in the forests near Vallathol railway station. Aloor was among the 4 lawyers who argued the case in the Supreme Court and succeeded in commuting Govindachamy’s death sentence to a life term after the court dismissed murder charges against him.
“I treat every case as the same. If clients come to me asking for help, as a criminal lawyer I offer them service. I have seen worse cases than this Jolly Joseph’s. I have defended people who have been charged with 4-10 murders, rape and sexual assault. This is not a special case for me,” Aloor told TNM when asked about why he accepted the case.
Aloor also said that investigations in the case were going on in a serious manner, but believed that it would be difficult for the case to stand in court.
“I strongly believe that the police will not be able to offer sufficient evidence for the case to hold in court. These deaths happened many years ago. There might not be eye-witnesses and I believe it will be very hard to establish scientific or medical evidence of poisoning,” he added.
Jolly Joseph, who is currently housed in the Kozhikode sub jail, will most likely be handed over to the crime branch for questioning on the deaths. The crime branch has requested for Jolly’s custody for 11 days and a court in Thamarassery will hear this petition on Thursday.
The 47-year-old mother of two is the prime suspect in the murders of 6 members of her family including her mother-in-law Annamma, father-in-law Tom Thomas, husband Roy Thomas and uncle Mathew Manjadiyil. Jolly is believed to have murdered them by feeding them cyanide.
Apart from these 4 people, the deaths of Cily - Jolly’s current husband Shaju’s first wife and Alphine - their 2 year old daughter are also believed to have seen Jolly‘s involvement.
The police have registered a case against Jolly and two others for the death of Roy Thomas. Roy's post mortem showed traces of cyanide in his body along with undigested food. The bodies of all 6 victims have been exhumed and will be subjected to medical tests to find traces of cyanide.
The police are yet to register cases in the deaths of the 5 other members of the family.
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