A woman was arrested in Kannur on Tuesday night for allegedly killing her parents and her nine-year-old daughter, by poisoning them in small doses over several months.
According to the police, 28-year-old Soumya was suspected in the suspicious deaths of her father, mother and her daughter. They questioned the woman for 13 hours on Tuesday, following which she confessed to killing her family, the police said.
Soumya was taken for questioning when she was convalescing at a state run hospital near Kannur after being admitted for nausea and indigestion - incidentally the same symptoms that her parents and her daughter suffered from before they died.
Her family mysteriously died over a period of four months: On January 31, her daughter Aishwarya died, her mother V Kamala (68) died on March 7, and on April 13, her father Kunhikannan (76) passed away. All of them reportedly had the same symptoms. They were all residents of Padannakkara in Pinarayi.
Following the deaths, a relative who suspected foul play filed a complaint, and the body of the child was exhumed after rat poison was found in the viscera of her parents.
A post-mortem on the child’s body was carried out by Pariyaram medical college hospital forensic surgeon Dr Gopalakrishna Pillai and the remains were taken to Thiruvananthapuram forensic lab for detailed examination.
"We have recorded the arrest of Soumya after she confessed to the killings. But we are not able to tell her motive," said district police chief Siva Vikram G.
Soumya was taken into custody from the Cooperative Hospital in Thalassery and she would be interrogated further, said police sources.
Incidentally this happened in the home village of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and it was only after his intervention that the police sped up their investigation.
"It was only after the death of Kamala that the people raised some doubts. The mystery behind these deaths will be solved soon," said PK Geethamma, Panchayath president, Pinarayi.