The 35-member special investigation team probing the Koodathayi murders in Kerala are currently focused on the death of Cily, the last victim in the alleged serial murders who passed away mysteriously in 2016.
The team is currently questioning Jolly’s husband Shaju who was earlier married to Cily, along with his father Zacharias. The interrogation is taking place at the Crime Branch office in Kozhikode district’s Payyoli.
“We have not made any arrests. But we are questioning both of them right now to find out if they had links to Cily’s death,” Kozhikode Rural SP KG Simon who is part of the SIT told TNM.
According to reports, police are probing if Shaju had prior information on Jolly’s intent to murder his 2-year-old daughter Alphine, who died in 2014, and his first wife Cily.
Police claim that Jolly has confessed to murdering Alphine by spreading cyanide on bread and feeding it to her during her sibling’s holy communion. The 47-year-old alleged serial murderer, police claim, has also confessed to killing Cily at a dental clinic by giving her cyanide-coated tablets.
According to reports, police are probing why Shaju, who was present at the dental clinic when Cily collapsed and became unconscious, delayed an hour before taking her to the hospital. Jolly too was present at the clinic during the incident.
Multiple reports on local media also quote police sources who claim that Shaju chose to remain silent despite having knowledge of Jolly’s plans. Reports also state that Cily had been wary of Shaju’s closeness to Jolly and had warned Jolly to step back. She had also reportedly got into a fight with Shaju’s parents over the same issue.
Shaju has already been questioned by the investigation team over 6 times on the alleged murders in the family. Last time, the probe team questioned him and Zacharias for over 10 hours to unearth information on the alleged murders.
A Huffington Post report which quoted the doctor at Shanthi Hospital who was present when Cily died stated that despite hospital authorities insisting on a postmortem, Shaju had vociferously refused it. Shaju eventually signed a letter stating that a postmortem was not performed on Cily at his insistence.
The police finally recorded Jolly’s arrest for Cily’s death last week. The Vadakara coastal CI KB Biju recorded her arrest on Friday.
Police claim that Jolly had attempted to murder Cily at least two times in the past, and had even tried to poison her in 2014 during Alphine’s death. She had, however, failed in her attempts.
Jolly was arrested for the alleged murder of her first husband Roy Thomas, who passed away in 2011. A postmortem done on Roy showed traces of cyanide in his body. Jolly is believed to have added cyanide to Roy’s dinner which led to his death. Out of the 6 alleged victims, a postmortem was performed only on Roy’s body.
Crime branch gets 6-day custody of Jolly
Meanwhile, the crime branch was granted a six-day custody of Jolly by the Thamarassery first class judicial magistrate court on Monday.
The court granted custody after considering a custody application filed by the police in order to further investigate Cily’s death.
The police will take Jolly to several places for evidence collection during the period of custody.
Forty-seven-year-old Jolly Joseph is the prime suspect in the deaths of 6 people of a family in Kozhikode’s Koodathayi. The police are yet to record Jolly’s arrest for the deaths of the 4 other members of the family, including father-in-law Tom Thomas, mother-in-law Annamma, uncle Mathew Manjadiyil, and Cily’s daughter Alphine. Five of the alleged murders are believed to have been carried out by using cyanide.