Koodathayi case; CPM leader turns hostile, gives statement in favour of Jolly

KOZHIKODE: A local CPM leader has turned hostile in Koodathayi serial murder case. Kozhikode Kattangal former local secretary and local committee member Praveen Kumar has testified in favor of the first accused Jolly and the fourth accused Manoj in the case. This is the first time that a person has turned hostile in the Koodathayi case.

So far, 46 witnesses have been examined in the case. Most of them including Jolly’s brothers gave statements in favor of the prosecution. Praveen Kumar is a Mahazar witness in connection with the case of the fourth accused Manoj. Praveen Kumar testified in the special trial court that he signed as per the directions of police and that he signed wherever the police told him.

Recently, the test results of the National Forensic Lab was released in connection with the case. No cyanide or any other poison was found in the remains of dead Annamma Thomas, Tom Thomas, Manchadiyil Mathew and two-and-a-half-year-old Alphine. Meanwhile, the presence of cyanide was previously found in the dead bodies of Roy Thomas and Sily.

Six people were killed in the Koodathayi series of murders from 2002 to 2014. Jolly was arrested by the police on October 5, 2019. The case alleges that Jolly killed her first husband Roy Thomas, Roy's parents Ponnamattom Annamma and Tom Thomas, Annamma's brother Mathew Manchadiyil, Jolly's second husband Shaju's wife Sili and daughter Alphine by poisoning their food and giving them cyanide. The bodies were exhumed and examined in 2019. Later it was sent for forensic examination.