Kozhikode: The special court here which is dealing with the sensational Koodathayi homicides regarding a series of murders allegedly carried out by a family member by cyanide poisoning has read out the chargesheet in one case.

On Thursday, the judge read out the chargesheet against the first accused, Jolly Joseph, and the co-accused M S Mathew, Prijukumar, and Manoj in the case involving the murder of her husband Roy Thomas of Ponnamattam family at Koodathayi village in Kozhikode.

Charges of murder, conspiracy and forging of documents have been slapped on Jolly.

The charges filed against Mathew and Prijukumar are of conspiracy and incitement. The charge against the fourth accused, Manoj, is for helping to prepare the forged will for grabbing the property of the Ponnamattam family.

Jolly listened to the chargesheet unperturbed. As she was being produced in court, Jolly shouted at media persons who were trying to take photographs.

The case will be considered again on January 19.

The hearing in the five other murder cases was adjourned till February 4. Chargesheets have been filed in all six cases. The chargesheets say that five of these deaths were caused by the ingestion of cyanide.

The cases

Six deaths, which would have remained just that, were found to be actually murders after a petition was filed against the forged will that was prepared to grab the family property. Jolly, the daughter-in-law of the Ponnamattam family, murdered six persons in order to get hold of the family property. The first murder was in 2002. Annamma Thomas collapsed and died after having mutton soup. After six years, Annamma’s husband, Tom Thomas died, followed by their son, Roy Thomas, three years later.

The fourth death was that of Annamma's brother, M M Mathew. The very next month, the one-year-old Alphin, daughter of Jolly’s second husband, Shaju, died. Shaju’s wife, Sily, also died in 2016.

It was the death of Roy Thomas that raised suspicions. Even though the presence of cyanide was detected in the postmortem examination, the death was initially considered a case of suicide. Roy Thomas’ brother, Rojo Thomas, had submitted a petition to the Rural Superintendent of Police, Vadakara, against the forged will.

The bodies were exhumed by opening the graves and examined after a three-month-long investigation under the leadership of the Rural Superintendent of Police, K G Simon. Following this, Jolly, her friend M S Mathew, who obtained the cyanide for Jolly, and goldsmith Prijukumar, who gave the cyanide, were arrested.