Kerala Serial Murder: Expert officials to be inducted into SIT probing

The Kerala Police has decided to induct expert officials in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the death of six members of a family on October 8. The deaths happened in the same family over a period of 14 years, the state Police Chief Lok Nath Behera said. He also mentioned that the police will seek the help of the best lab in the country to conduct a trace analysis of the dead bodies and will also explore the possibilities of approaching foreign labs if needed. The six deaths in the family took place between 2002 and 2016. While the first death, which is now being suspected to be a murder, was of Jolly's mother-in-law, the most recent to die in the family was a relative and mother of a two-year-old. 

On Tuesday the accused Jolly Shaju, who was arrested for allegedly poisoning to death six members of her family, over a period of 14 years in Kerala's Koodathayi village in Kozhikode district, has admitted to the crime, the police said. The Investigating Officer (IO) handling the serial murder case, told the media persons that Jolly allegedly killed them in order to take away the property. He said that pursuant to the thorough analysis and consultation with the doctors, it was found that they all died because of cyanide poisoning. 

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Earlier on Monday, the police had arrested Jolly along with a jewellery shop employee MS Mathew and Prajikumar in connection with the deaths. Prajikumar is accused of supplying cyanide to Jolly to carry out murders in Kudathai village of the district. Mathew and Prajikumar both were known to Jolly for a long time, the police said.

The police said that her mother-in-law, Annamma Thomas, was killed because "she was the most important person in that family". "She looked after everything in the family. It was a move to gain control over the complete financial transactions within the family," the IO said. In 2008, Tom Thomas, her father in law, was killed. "More reasons lead to his death. He was killed to gain possession of his property," he said, adding that once the duo had an "ugly fight".

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About the case

In 2011, her husband breathed his last. The officer revealed that their relationship was in a very "bad state during the last days, which ultimately led to his death." Three years later, Annamma's brother, who, the police claims had sought post-mortem to be conducted on the body of Jolly's husband, died. "I do not want to reveal how he was killed, we are still waiting for some more information," the police officer said. 

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The same year, a toddler, Alphine Shaju, was allegedly killed by Jolly. "She had told many people that she would have loved to have someone like Shaju (Alphine's husband) as her husband. In the case, it was told that the child died after she chocked some food while eating," he said, adding that the toddler died due to cyanide poisoning. The last one to have been killed by the accused was Alphine's mother in 2016."According to Jolly, she gave her some water to drink and we could also find out that she died after drinking the water. The poison was mixed in that water. After all these deaths, she married him (Shaju)," the police divulged.

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