In a new twist to the Koodathayi cyanide serial murder case, Johnson, an aide of the prime accused Jolly Joseph, had pledged the gold jewellery of Sily, first wife of Jolly's present husband and one of the victims poisoned by her, to a cooperative bank.
He handed over the eight-and-a-half sovereigns of the gold to the police on Friday at Vadakara coastal police station in Kerala's Kozhikode district.
Sily's brother Sijo, sister and Sijo's wife on Friday identified the gold chain and a bangle handed over by Johnson to the cops. Their statements make the jewellery an important piece of evidence in the serial murder case that grabbed international media attention in the past few weeks.
Johnson had stated earlier that Jolly had given him the gold after convinced him that the gold was hers. Jolly had asked him to pledge the jewellery at a cooperative bank in Puthupady.
Even though he had taken back the gold from the ban, he couldn't hand it over to Jolly as she was in police custody. Jolly also pledged Sily's other jewellery in three other banks.
DySP K V Venugopal interrogted Jolly on Friday.
Sily was the first wife of Jolly's present husband Shaju.
According to police, 47-year-old Jolly had poisoned six people, including her first husband Roy Thomas and her in-laws, in 17 years. Roy's parents were allegedly murdered in 2002 and 2008 and another relative Mathew Manjadiyil in 2011.
Along with Sily, her little daughter Alphine too was allegedly given cyanide by Jolly in 2015. According to cops, Jolly wanted to eliminate members of the Ponnamattom family for property.
Shaju, who too is under a cloud over the murders, had earlier claimed that Sily had deposited around 40 sovereigns of gold in the donation box at a church. However, the relatives had dubbed this a false claim.
