Kozhikode: Jolly Joseph, the prime accused in the Koodathayi serial murder case, was hospitalised on Thursday morning after she attempted to commit suicide inside her cell at the Kozhikode district prison.
Jolly, who is under judicial remand since her arrest in October, 2019 had cut her wrist using a "semi-sharp edged weapon" and had been admitted to Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, PTI reported quoting a police officer.
She was rushed to hospital after the jail officials noticed blood oozing out of her wrist in the early hours of Thursday. A surgery will have to be performed to fix the injury, the official said.
An investigation has been launched into the incident, police said, adding it was probing how Jolly got the weapon inside the jail.
Jolly, who was accused of killing six members of her husband's family one after the other by giving them cyanide-laced food or drink over a period of 14 years in Koodathayi in Kozhikode district, was arrested four months ago.
Jolly had allegedly first killed her mother-in-law Annamma Thomas in 2002. She was followed by Jolly's father-in-law Tom Thomas in 2008. In 2011, their son and Jolly's husband, Roy Thomas, also died to be followed by the death of Roy's maternal uncle, Mathew, in 2014. The last one in the extended family to die was Sily in 2016.
The police later decided to reopen Roy's case in order to reinvestigate all the six mysterious deaths after a complaint was filed by his US-based brother Rojo.
On October 5, the police arrested Jolly and her two accomplices who are currently in jail, and registered separate cases in each of the deaths.
