Kozhikode: The prime suspect in the chilling Koodathayi murders, Jolly Joseph, who had always introduced herself as a faculty of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) likely exploited this image to indulge in suspected nefarious activities even outside Kerala.
She had visited Coimbatore and Chennai 11 times on the pretext of teacher training, shows her statement to the police.
Two persons -- Jolly's teacher-friend and relative M S Mathew -- were along with her at different times during her Tamil Nadu trips. The purpose of the visit was to see plots and buy clothes, she told the cops.
Jolly had told her family members that the visits to Tamil Nadu were part of her “heavy workload” at the NIT. She had asked them not to contact her on her mobile phone during these days because “she would be busy in the classroom”.
Jolly’s male teacher-friend from Chennai was along with her during two of her trips. Twice Mathew also travelled along with Jolly.
Mathew has admitted to his trip to Coimbatore with Jolly.
Jolly had also visited Ooty and Kodaikanal along with her friend, a BSNL employee, and his family.
She had told her family that the tour included two days of training and two days of travelling.
However, the investigation team is yet to take her explanation at face value. It is looking whether there are more to the trips, including the involvement of more persons and other aims.
The investigators' bid to elicit more information from her has reportedly hit a rough patch as she did not cooperate with them citing ill health on Thursday. She did not reply to questions posed by the SP.
Subsequently, Jolly was taken to a hospital, where the doctor could not confirm the health issues mentioned by Jolly. This led the cops to believe that Jolly is deliberately trying to not cooperate with the probe.
More to be ferreted out
The investigation team which had sought the permission of the court at Thamarassery to take Jolly and two co-accused M S Mathew and Prajikumar to Coimbatore and Kattappana, her hometown in Kerala, for evidence collection, has a rethink now. It now wants to continue their questioning to get more clarity on several details and hence the team could push evidence collection to the next stage of investigation, police sources said.
The Crime Branch team is to record the statements of more people in the coming days.
Since six separate cases of suspicious deaths have been registered and are being investigated simultaneously, the cops are sure that they could get the custody of Jolly again without any delay.
Jolly was arrested earlier this month over the murder of her first husband Roy Thomas at the Ponnamattom House in Koodathayi village. She had then allegedly confessed to killing other five members of his family, including his parents. Her alleged murders happened between 2002 and 2016.
Jolly could be the main accused in all the murder cases. Though investigation is progressing in all these cases, the arrests, remand and custody took place only in the Roy Thomas murder case.
The cops have a definite plan: they are aiming to keep Jolly in their custody as long as possible. For this, once they present her in the court in the Roy murder case, she will be arrested in the next murder case and her custody will be sought from the court. The cops are likely to follow this plan in all the six cases.
The sleuths would also aim to understand Jolly to the core while she is custody. They would like to find out how she became a hardened criminal.
Thus the Koodathai murders could well become a case study for the Kerala Police.
