Kannur: Soumya, 30, the prime accused in the sensational Pinarayi mass murder case committed suicide at the Kannur Women's Prison on Friday.

Soumya, who was accused of poisoning her nine-year-old daughter and aged parents, hanged herself from a cashew tree on the prison campus.

Vannathamveettil Soumya had been remanded and confined in the Kannur Women’s Prison in May on charges of murdering her parents, Kamala (65) and Kunhikannan (80) and her daughter in a span of four months this year. Two separate cases have been charged against Soumya.

In her statement to the police, Soumya said she had killed her daughter after the latter came to know of her illicit affairs. She had initially killed the child and later, her parents. She feigned illness and got admitted to a hospital. The police had then questioned Soumya several times. She stuck to the stance that she had nothing to do with the deaths. However, the police called her bluff after the autopsy report indicated the presence of aluminium phosphide, a component of rat poison, in all the bodies.

In jail, Soumya was given the dairy farm duty. Reports said she had gone to collect feed for livestock at the farm on the jail premises. Later, she was found hanging from a cashew tree using the saree she wore.

Read more: How the police unravelled the mass murders at Pinarayi

Gut-wrenching crime trail

The tragic fate of the Vannathamveettil family raised eyebrows when three members of the family died within a span of four months. When Soumya, the last surviving member of the family, was admitted to a hospital with similar symptoms, the locals and the police smelled a rat.

The police were under tremendous pressure to crack the case after the series of mysterious deaths in the chief minister’s home constituency hogged headlines. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself asked the police to give priority to the case.

The family’s tragedy started way back in 2012, when Soumya’s one-year-old daughter died after a bout of vomiting. The family did not insist on a post-mortem examination as everyone thought it was a natural death.

The woman’s older daughter Aishwarya died of the same symptoms on January 21 this year. There was no post-mortem for Aishwarya either. However, the death of their grandparents in quick succession sent alarm bells ringing. Kamala died on March 7 and Kunjikkannan died on April 13. All the deceased had showed the same symptoms before they died.

The bodies of the aged couple were subjected to post-mortem and the police registered cases of unnatural death. Soumya herself sought treatment in a hospital with the same symptoms on April 10. The police grew suspicious after the doctors said that the woman was probably suffering from indigestion.

She confessed to the crime on April 25 after a 11-hours long grilling by the police.

Soumya told the police that she laced her daughter’s meal with rat poison after the girl caught her in a compromising position. Gotten away with murder, she planned to kill her parents too. That way she would be free to lead her life the way she wanted. She insisted that she had not killed her younger daughter six years ago. The woman has been separated from her husband.

Read more: When police turned psychologist: Anatomy of a murder investigation