Kozhikode: The mysterious deaths of six members of a family at Koodathayi in Kerala’s Kozhikode district took a new turn on Saturday with the police taking into custody a couple, who are close relatives of the deceased, and the woman’s kin who allegedly supplied cyanide to her.
Jolly Thomas, wife of Roy Thomas, who died in 2011, is being questioned by the probe team in connection with the suspected murders of the six people. Jolly’s second husband and Roy’s cousin Shaju Skaria, was also taken into custody on Saturday.
The other detained youth is also a close relative of Jolly and he was earlier employed with a jewellery, from where he allegedly got cyanide. (Goldsmiths use cyanide to extract the yellow metal). The case hit headlines due to the eerie similarities of all the six deaths in a span of 14 years. Retired educational department officer P Tom Thomas, 66, his wife Annamma, 57, son Roy Thomas, 40, Tom’s brother’s daughter-in-law Sily Shaju, 44, her 2-year-old daughter Alphine, and Annamma’s brother Mathew Manjadiyil, 68, had died under mysterious circumstances during the period from 2002 to 2016.