Jolly Shaju, the prime suspect in the Koodathayi serial murders, has confessed to the special police team probing the cases that she had poisoned to death Annamma Thomas, her mother-in-law and first victim, with pesticide mixed in mutton soup at their ancestral house in August 2002.
Jolly told the investigators that she was well aware of the dangers of pesticides as she hailed from an agricultural family. She had laced the mutton soup with the pesticide a day before she poisoned Annamma to death.
Previously, she had told the sleuths in connection with the murder of her first husband, Roy Thomas, that she had carried out the six murders by poisoning them with cyanide.
The Koodathayi killings case pertains to the death of retired education department officer Tom Thomas and his wife, retired teacher Annamma Thomas, parents of Roy; Sily, wife of Shaju Zacharias, the second husband of Jolly, her two-year-old daughter Alphine; and Annamma’s brother-in-law, Mathew Manjadiyil, under mysterious circumstances.
Jolly, who is at present in police custody, had told the police that she had some idea about the effects of cyanide but had no knowledge how to obtain the fast-acting poison. She had read about the effects of the chemical in newspapers and she had searched the Internet for information on it.
When she knew it was difficult to procure cyanide, she had sought the help of jewellery employee and distant relative, M.S. Mathew aka Shaji. Thus, she got in touch with him regularly and maintained a good rapport with him.
Verifying claims
Investigators are piecing together the statements of Jolly to verify her claims on the pesticide and cyanide. She had reportedly poisoned to death at least five of them including her husband with cyanide mixed either in food or drink.
Mathew and Prajikumar, who allegedly helped her with supplying the cyanide, were arrested and are in custody. But how Prajikmar got the poison is another question confusing the investigators.
Meanwhile, the Kunnamangalam Magistrate’s Court will record the statements of Jolly’s children, Romo and Ronaldo, and Sily’s brother Sijo on November 1 and 2 respectively.
The Kozhikode First Class Judicial Magistrate’s Court has served a notice on Shaju for taking his statements on November 7. Their statements will be taken under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (recording of confessions and statements by a magistrate in the course of an investigation).
