The house in Malapparam where the couple live | Photo Credit: Times Now

Key Highlights Neighbours witnsssed the couple burying their sixth child secretly on Tuesday morning Tirur police have registered a case of unnatural death in this regard The couple claims that their children died of epilepsy

Thiruvananthapuram: An appalling turn of events have come to light from Kerala where police are investigating the mysterious deaths of six children of the same family over a period of nine years. The matter came to light on Tuesday morning when the couple's sixth child passed away and was buried without a post-mortem. Police have taken note of the deaths in Tirur town of Malappuram district.

Neighbours or Tirur residents Rafeeq and Sabna witnessed the couple burying their 93-day-old child at 10 am on Tuesday morning. Alarmed by the secrecy shrouding the child's death, neighbours alerted the local police. A team of officers was dispatched to the spot and confronted the couple. In their defence, the husband and wife claimed that their children died due to epilepsy. A case of unnatural death was registered with respect to the children's deaths.

A preliminary investigation revealed that neither neighbours nor relatives of the couple thought it was wise to raise suspicion over the deaths of their six children in the last nine years. Malappuram Superintendent of Police U Abdul Kareem said that a case has been registered and further investigation is underway. He further added that the post-mortem of the most-recently deceased child will be conducted and its report will establish the cause of death beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case serves as a grim reminder of a similar turn of events that came to light from Kerala last year. A complaint filed by a woman led the police in Kerala's Koodathayi to exhume the bodies of six members of a family who died under mysterious circumstances over a period of 16 years. A probe led them to Jolly Shaju, a former college lecturer who confessed to killing her ex-husband and his family members by poisoning them with cyanide in order to claim their ancestral property for herself. At the time of her arrest, she was planning the murder of her second husband's ex-wife.