Kozhikode: In a further setback to the Koodathayi serial murder case trial, a former CPM local secretary, who is a witness in the case, has turned hostile and given a statement in favour of prime accused Jolly Joseph and fourth accused Manoj Kumar.

P Praveen Kumar, a resident of Nairkuzhy Kumbalath Parambu House, is the 155th witness in the case and the former CPM local secretary. He had signed in the mahazar when the Crime Branch brought Manoj Kumar to the property, he allegedly handed over to Jolly by feigning signature, in November 2019.

The mahazar serves as proof of occasion, cause or effect of facts, coming under section 7 and 9 of the Indian Evidence Act. It is a description of facts and state of things which an investigating officer observes in a scene of crime.

As per the charge sheet, Jolly Thomas, the daughter-in-law of the Ponnamattom family, killed six people between 2002 and 2014 to gain ancestral property.

The first murder happened in 2002 when Jolly's mother-in-law, Annamma Thomas collapsed to death after having mutton soup. Six years later, Annamma's husband Tom Thomas (father of the main accused Jolly Joseph’s first husband), and three years later their son Roy Thomas, died in a similar fashion. The fourth death was that of M M Mathew, brother of Annamma Mathew. The very next month, Alphine, the one-year-old daughter of Shaju, died. In 2016, Sily, the wife of Shaju, too breathed her last.

Among these, it was the death of Roy Thomas that raised doubts about foul play. The presence of cyanide was confirmed in the post-mortem report. Until then, it was considered a case of suicide. Later, it became clear that Jolly was deliberately attempting to paint Roy's death as a case of suicide. The complaint regarding the fraudulent will, furnished by Rojo Thomas, brother of Roy, and submitted to the Vadakara Rural SP, led to the unravelling of the murder series.

After a three-month-long investigation led by then Rural SP K G Simon, the bodies of the victims were exhumed by breaking open the grave in October 2019. Jolly was arrested on the very next day. M S Mathew, Jolly's friend who procured the cyanide for her, and Prijukumar, a goldsmith who gave the cyanide to Mathew, were also arrested.

A charge sheet was submitted in all six cases. Five of them state that the deaths occurred due to the intake of cyanide. Only the autopsy of Jolly’s first husband, Roy Thomas, was carried out, and it revealed the presence of cyanide as the reason for his death.

Though the remains of the bodies of five others were examined at Kozhikode Regional Chemical Laboratory in January 2020, the cyanide presence was found only in the body of Sily, the first wife of Jolly’s second husband, Shaju.

The bodies of Tom Thomas, Annamma Thomas (Tom’s wife), Mathew Manchadiyil (Annamma’s brother), and toddler Alphine (daughter of Shaju, who is Jolly’s second husband) were earlier exhumed and the remains sent for the examination at the Central Forensic Laboratory. Hyderabad. However, the forensic test too failed to find any trace of cyanide or any other poison in the bodies of four of the victims.

The prosecution argued that the presence of cyanide or other poison couldn’t be traced in the bodies during the forensic tests since their deaths happened long back. There are circumstantial evidence and witness accounts that prove beyond doubt that it was Jolly Thomas who carried out all the murders, it claimed. The medical board report, which analyzed the reasons for the death of the four persons, too corroborates the prosecution's argument.

All the murders happened in the period from 2002 to 2016. The bodies were exhumed and samples collected only in October 2019. It is this delay that led to the failure in the detection of cyanide in the forensic tests, the prosecution cited. The last of the murders in the series happened on January 11, 2016, when Sily breathed her last. The investigation team suspects that cyanide was used in much larger quantity in her murder. The same led to the finding of the presence of cyanide in the body. Annamma Thomas died in 2002, Tom Joseph in 2008, and Alphine Shaju and Mathew Manchadiyil in 2014.