Kerala cyanide killings: Charge sheet filed

The Kerala police on Wednesday filed charge-sheet against a woman accused of killing six members of her family, including husband and in-laws at Koodathayi in Kozhikode district of North Kerala.

The charge-sheet was filed against Jolly Joseph in the killing of her husband Roy Thomas in 2011 by lacing cyanide in food. Three others were also charge-sheeted in the case - Roy's relative M S Mathew, goldsmith Prajukumar and former CPM local leader K Manoj. Apart from murder charges, the accused were charged for criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and cheating.

The 8,000-page charge sheet was filed at a local court in Kozhikode. There were 246 witnesses in the case including Jolly's two children. Jolly stated that Roy was killed as she felt that he was not taking care of the family and was alcoholic.

Charge-sheet in the other cases would be filed in the due course, said Kozhikode-rural district police chief K G Simon.

The serial deaths began with Jolly's mother-in-law Annama in 2002, father-in-law Tom Thomas in 2008, husband Roy Thomas in 2011, Annama's brother Mathew in 2014, Jolly's present husband Shaju's one-year-old daughter Alphine in 2014 and Shaju's wife Sily in 2016. Presence of cyanide found in Roy's body during autopsy and suspicions regarding the other deaths led to the detailed investigation. Jolly was arrested in October 2019.