One more witness in the Koodathayi serial murder case has turned hostile before the Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad cases) denying the previous statement given to the Special Investigation Team.
Saranya Prajikumar, wife of Prajikumar, the third accused, is the 60th witness in the case and the sixth to turn hostile during trial proceedings on the murder of Roy Thomas.
The woman had earlier revealed to the police that M.S. Mathew, the second accused in the case, was a close friend of her husband Prajikumar. She was the mahasar witness of the police squad that recovered cyanide from a jewellery shop at Thamarassery as incriminating evidence against Jolly Joseph, the prime accused in the case.
Earlier, another woman who was the fifth witness in the case had also turned hostile. Jipsy, wife of Maikad native Surendran, had previously admitted to the police that she had seen her husband exchanging cyanide with Mr. Prajikumar apart from seeing Mr. Mathew who helped the prime accused to get it at the jewellery shop.
It was between 2002 and 2016 that the chain of suspected murders took place in Kozhikode’s Koodathayi village. The first victim was Jolly’s mother-in-law Annamma Thomas who died in 2002. Six years later, Jolly’s father-in-law Tom Thomas died of “heart failure”. In 2011, her husband Roy also died under suspicious circumstances.
In 2014, Annamma’s brother Mathew Manchadiyil was found dead. The other two suspected victims were Sily, wife of Shaju Zachariya, who is Roy’s cousin and Jolly’s second husband, Sily’ one-year old daughter Alphine. The two also died under mysterious circumstances in 2016.
A comprehensive probe was launched into the series of suspicious deaths following the complaint filed by Rojo Thomas, the youngest son of Tom Thomas. On October 5, a Special Investigation team led by the then Superintendent of Police (Kozhikode Rural) K.G. Simon arrested Jolly along with two other persons who were accused of murdering the six with poison-laced food to gain control over the family properties.
The examination of the witnesses in the Roy murder case began on March 7, 2023 with a list of 158 witnesses. Meanwhile, Jolly filed a discharge petition in the Supreme Court recently claiming that there was no evidence for the murder charges against her. The hearing on the plea seeking acquittal was adjourned for three weeks last Monday.
