india

Updated: Feb 27, 2020 09:03 IST

Jolly Joseph, the main accused in Kerala cyanide killings, tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrist early on Thursday. She was immediately rushed to Kozhikode medical college hospital.

Officials of the Kozhikode district jail said that they got to know about the incident at 4.30 am when fellow inmates alerted them after which they sent Joseph to the hospital.

Joseph was arrested last year for allegedly killing six of her family members by giving cyanide-laced food. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the case, had filed chargesheet in all the six cases.

It all started with a police complaint by a family member, who suspected foul play and alleged a pattern in deaths of his kin, leading to the police exhuming bodies of the six family members of Ponnamattam House and eventually blowing the lid off arguably Kerala’s most shocking case of suspected cold-blooded serial killings in recent times.

Retired teacher and Jolly’s mother-in-law Anamma Thomas was the first to die in 2002 followed by husband Tom Thomas in 2008 and son Roy Thomas in 2011. Anamma’s brother Mathew Manjadiyi died in 2014 and two years later, another relative, Cily, and her one-year-old child died under similar mysterious circumstances. Jolly was the only person to be present at the time of all the deaths.

Investigators said that Joseph was leading a ‘jolly’ good life, with booze, extra marital affairs and real estate deals. Her journey came to an abrupt end, just when she was planning to get married for the third time.

The SIT had arrested four people last October in connection with the case. The other accused are Mathew, Prachi Kumar and K Manoj, a former CPI(M) leader who was later expelled from the party.

All six suspected killings took place in Koodathayi, a small village in Kozhikode district in north Kerala.