The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Koodathayi serial murders submitted the chargesheet in the murder of Roy Thomas before the Thamarassery Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court II in Kozhikode district on Wednesday.
The chargesheet, running into 1,800 pages, was the first of six sensational cases in which the prime accused Jolly Joseph allegedly eliminated two branches of the Ponnamattom ancestral family after giving them cyanide-laced food or drink over a period of 14 years.
The 47-year-old was named the first accused in the murder of her former husband Roy on September 30, 2011. Along with Jolly, the chargesheet named M.S. Mathew, aka Shaji, 44, and Prajikumar, 44, who allegedly helped Jolly in getting the cyanide and a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) functionary K. Manoj, 41, who helped to forge documents.
Jolly's mother-in-law Annamma Thomas; her father-in-law Tom Thomas, a retired Education Department officer; Sily, wife of Shaju Zacharias, Jolly’s second husband; Sily's two-year-old daughter Alphine; and Annamma’s brother-in-law Mathew Manjadiyil were the other victims.
Crime Branch Superintendent of Police K.G. Simon said the accused were charged under Sections 302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security and will), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 110 (punishment for abetment if person abetted does act with different intention from that of abettor), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 (2) [penalty for unlawful importation] of the Poison Act.
The extraordinary case had 242 witnesses, 322 documents, and 22 material objects, Mr. Simon said.
Now, the chargesheet would be submitted to the Kozhikode Sessions Court. The chargesheets in the remaining murder cases would be filed shortly.
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