The examination of witnesses in the Roy Thomas murder case will start on the Kozhikode Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad instances) on Tuesday. Roy was the third sufferer in the Koodathayi serial killing case, in which 158 witnesses shall be examined by the court docket by March 18.
Though Renji Thomas, the primary witness and sister of Roy, deposed earlier than the court docket to testify on Monday as per the beforehand introduced schedule, the case was adjourned to Tuesday following the enchantment of Jolly Joseph, the primary accused in the case, that she needed to speak in individual together with her lawyer forward of the method. Lawyer B.A. Aloor appeared on behalf of the defence counsel who was permitted to speak with the accused until 5 p.m. on Monday.
The case was adjourned to Tuesday additionally contemplating the enchantment of the defence counsel to provide the second accused M.S. Mathew in individual in court docket fairly than by video-conference. It was authorised by the court docket. Jolly additionally moved an enchantment to speak in individual with Mathew, which shall be thought-about by the court docket on Wednesday.
Jolly has been accused of murder, conspiracy, and forging paperwork in the case. The different two accused talked about in the chargesheet are Mathew and Prajikumar, who have been charged with conspiracy and incitement. Manoj, the fourth accused, was charged for his suspected position in serving to Jolly forge land paperwork and seize the property of the Ponnamattam household.
It was between 2002 and 2016 that the chain of suspected murders came about in Kozhikode’s Koodathayi village. The first suspected sufferer was Jolly’s mother-in-law Annamma Thomas, 57, a retired trainer who died in 2002. Six years later, Jolly’s father-in-law Tom Thomas, 66, died of “heart failure”. In 2011, her husband Roy additionally died below suspicious circumstances.
Annamma’s brother Mathew Manchadiyil was discovered lifeless in 2014. In 2016, Sily, spouse of Shaju Zachariya, who’s Roy’s cousin and Jolly’s second husband, and Sily’s one-year-old daughter Alphine died. The police launched a complete probe into the incident, subsequent to a grievance filed by Rojo Thomas, the youngest son of Tom Thomas, with the then Superintendent of Police (Kozhikode Rural ) Ok.G. Simon. On October 5, 2019, a Special Investigation Team arrested Jolly alongside together with her two suspected companions in the crime.
The police had submitted 322 incriminating paperwork and 22 materials objects to assist the case. Among the six who have been discovered lifeless below mysterious circumstances, a autopsy examination was performed solely on the physique of Roy. The post-mortem revealed poisoning because the trigger of dying. The police had submitted an 8,000-page chargesheet towards the accused. The trial in the case was delayed as a result of pandemic outbreak.
