Officials taking the mortal remains of M.M Mathew, exhumed from the cemetery at Lourd Matha church in Koodathai, to the chapel for inspection.

Thamarassery: The plot behind the death of six members of a family at Koodathai in Kozhikode district under similar circumstances during a span of 14 years is turning out to be one that rivals a suspense thriller movie.

The investigation team is of the primary assumption that the six were murdered by mixing cyanide in food.

The deaths occurred in the family of retired government official Tom Thomas. The first to die was his wife, retired teacher Annamma on September 22, 2002. She collapsed after consuming lamb soup and died. Police assume that cyanide was mixed in the food she consumed. Annamma's daughter had given statement to the police that her mother showed symptoms of having consumed cyanide before dying.

Annamma's death was followed by her husband Tom Thomas, who died on September 26, 2008. Then on October 30, 2011, their son Roy collapsed and died. After relatives raised suspicion, his body was sent for a post mortem which confirmed the presence of cyanide in his body. However, the police did not investigate how Roy ingested cyanide then. The crime branch has found that the other deaths had occurred in a similar manner.

Roy's demise was followed by the death of his maternal uncle M.M. Mathew on April 24, 2014. The same year, Alfine, the one-year-old daughter of Fily and Tom Thomas's nephew Shaju, died on May 3. Fily passed away on January 11, 2016.

The police began the probe after Rojo, the younger brother of Roy and settled in the US, filed a complaint. The Kerala Police, probing the mysterious death of the six people between 2002 to 2016, on Friday exhumed their bodies for a scientific probe.

The police dug in the cemetery at two churches in Kozhikode. Four of the deceased were buried in two tombs at the cemetery of Koodathai Lourd Matha church while two others were buried in a tomb at St Mary's church in Kodenchery.

The investigation team exhumed all six bodies and collected samples from each of them after detailed inspection. The inspections were held by eight forensic doctors from Kozhikode medical college who were divided into two teams. The six samples have been sent to the forensic lab in Kannur.

Speaking to the media soon after the exhumation, Superintendent of Police K.T. Simon said that the probe is going on in the right direction.

"One thing that has happened in all these deaths is that all of them died soon after taking food. Kerala Police is quite capable of unravelling any case and it has proved in the past also when it has solved cases which are much older than this one," he said.

According to the police, the exhumation was done after finding the death of Roy was caused due to poisoning and the police probe team, after questioning a few suspects, decided to conduct a detailed probe into the other deaths by taking out the bodies.

The police have now asked a few people who have been questioned to make themselves available at any time they are asked to be present.

Property deals led to mystery behind deaths

The police have noticed that there were a few property deals that took place in the family, which was one of the reasons for Rojo to file a complaint with the police.

Tom Thomas and Annamma's son Roy died in 2011. Tom Thomas's nephew Shaju's daughter Alfine and wife Fily died in 2014 and 2016. Following the deaths, Shaju married Roy's wife Jolly. Later, the properties belonging to the family were transferred to Jolly's name.

Following this, Rojo filed a police complaint alleging that false documents were created to take over the family property. The crime branch while investigating this complaint also investigated the death of Roy. Investigations regarding the presence of cyanide in Roy's body unveiled the similarities in the six deaths.

Though the property dispute was later settled, the investigation regarding the deaths continued.

(With inputs from IANS)