Bhubaneswar: Jolly Thomas of Kerala is viral on the internet, thanks to her alleged involvement in six mysterious deaths between 2002 and 2016.
Kerala Police Saturday arrested Jolly Thomas in connection with inexplicable death of her husband Roy Thomas and five other family members in a fairly long span of 14 years. The startling fact that came to light is all the deaths were due to cyanide poisoning.
The mysterious deaths took place in retired government official Tom Thomas’ family alone. The first one to be eliminated was in 2002, when Jolly’s mother-in-law Annamma, a retired teacher died. Jolly’s father-in-law Tom Thomas was the next six years later. In 2011, Jolly’s husband Roy Thomas died too.
The saga never stopped. Mathew Thomas (Annamma’s brother) was also murdered in 2014 as he apparently demanded for autopsy for one of the deaths.
The very next year, two-year-old child of Sily (named Alphonsa) — a relative by marriage — died following a cardiac arrest. In 2016, Sily also passed away.
Meanwhile, Jolly got married to Sili’s widower Shaju and claimed ownership of the family property coupled with support of the last will prepared by Tom, her father-in-law.
Suspecting some foul play, Mojo (Tom’s younger son who lives in the US) challenged the family property’s ownership transfer. Mojo lodged complaints with the Crime Branch highlighting the serial deaths in the family.
Once convinced with Rojo’s logic, the police exhumed the mortal remains of the deceased from graves and got forensic examination done. The initial reports indicated to poisoning.
Getting down to business, police quizzed Shaju and Jolly as many as eight times and found discrepancies in their statements. Further investigations revealed Jolly’s presence was found on all six locations where deaths took place. On being asked to go for polygraph test, Jolly refused it on health grounds.
According to police, Jolly’s first lie was detected when she said she was an engineering graduate — teaching at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) — while actually being a commerce graduate.
On call details verification, Police also found that Jolly was in constant touch with Shaju in odd hours.
On the other hand, forensic experts found the presence of cyanide in the bodies that were exhumed. It was a case of slow poisoning, police said. “We found that Roy’s death had occurred due to cyanide, while the wife had claimed he had died of cardiac arrest,” police officers said.
Two more accused — MS Matthew and Prajikumar — were arrested by Kerala Police for their alleged complicity in the chilling crime. The two share employer-employee relationship with Matthew being the owner of a jewellery store. They were known to Jolly for long time. Prajikumar is believed to have supplied cyanide to Jolly.
Investigations revealed meticulous planning and execution by the 47-year-old housewife. Murders may not be restricted only to the Thomas family, according to the Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Lok Nath Behera.
Refusing to comment on the whole story behind the murders, police said it’s a complex case to handle. “It’s too early to comment on the entire dynamics of the crime carried out by Jolly and her aides. Though it’s a complex case to investigate, I don’t rule out more such killings executed by them,” Behera was quoted as saying by IANS.
“We are following certain leads and gathering information on previous linkages of Jolly to ascertain her criminal profile. At this moment, I can only say the police have done a great job to unravel the killings, which could have gone unnoticed,” Behera said.
Thomas’ NRI brother Rojo, was believed to be next in line for elimination. Since he was in abroad, the accused remained out of reach.
Jolly’s son seeks truth
Jolly’s elder son Romo now wants to wait for the investigations to get over. “A crime is a crime and the wrongdoer should be punished. I don’t want to say anything. The probe by the crime branch is on. The truth should come out. I have got to stay strong as I have a younger brother. I can’t afford to let him down,” said 21-year-old Romo.
Roy Thomas’ sister Renji Thomas is also waiting for the truth to unravel. “It doesn’t matter if the crime took place 17-20 years ago. I always wanted to know how my parents and brother died. The truth is out now. I am not worried about the forensic report. Now, that’s not my concern,” Renji said.
She also urged people to be vigilant about unnatural deaths. “One should go forward to get an autopsy done, even though, many may not like the body to be opened up,” she was quoted as saying by IANS.
However, police are questioning seven more people on Monday.