VADAKARA: The

probing the

recorded the arrest of three persons on Saturday, including the prime accused

(47) alias Jolly, wife of Roy Thomas (41) at the time of his death. Roy was one of the victims.

In a span of 14 years, six persons from an extended family died from what seemed to be natural causes, but after the case was reopened recently it has turned out to be the chilling handiwork of one woman, who poisoned them using potassium

.

According to police, though Jolly has admitted involvement in all six deaths, the three accused have been arrested only in connection with the death of Roy as of now. Police are collecting evidence of involvement of the accused in the other five deaths. All six bodies were exhumed earlier this week and subjected to forensic examination.

Mathew provided Jolly with cyanide, say police

Apart from Jolly, the other two accused are M S Mathew and Praji Kumar. Mathew, police said, is a relative and family friend of Jolly. He was the person who provided Jolly with the cyanide. Prajin Kumar is a gold smith and he sold the cyanide to Mathew.

"Autopsy was conducted only after the death of Roy and the presence of cyanide in his body was crucial evidence”, district police chief (Kozhikode Rural) K G Simon told the media at his office on Saturday. “The investigation is on and the arrest of the persons in connection with the five other deaths would be recorded later”, he added.

Roy was murdered in 2011; the other victims are Roy’s mother Annamma (57) who died in 2002, his father Tom Thomas (66) in 2008 and uncle Mathew Manchadi (68) who died in 2014. Roy’s cousinbrother Shaju’s wife Sili (41) and their daughter Alphine (2) had died in 2016 and 2014 respectively. Till last week, the entire community in this remote village had believed that the six deaths had been natural.

Police reopened the investigation after Rojo Thomas, son of Tom Thomas and Annamma and Roy’s brother, raised suspicions about the deaths after Jolly tried to get hold of the family property by faking the will of his parents. The special investigation team has already collected evidence to prove the document forgery.

Police said that the six murders were carried out with different motives, ranging from securing family property to gaining power in the household. Though the police questioned Roy’s cousin Shaju Skaria, who Jolly married after Roy’s death, police have not been able to get evidence of his involvement in the crime. The fifth victim, Alphine, was Shaju’s daughter and the sixth victim Sili was his wife. "We will not arrest any person without collecting all evidence to prove their involvement in the crime," Simon said.

The police have charged the three accused under section 302, 34 and 365 of the Indian penal code. After producing the accused before court, police will move a custody application for all three of them. The investigation which spanned over two months was carried out in a confidential manner, Simon said.

The investigation was carried out by a special team constituted by the state police chief. DYSP R Haridasan and team carried out the probe under the leadership of district police chief Simon and additional district police chief T K Subrahmanian.