Kerala serial murder: Key suspect's son says punish wrongdoer

Romo, the elder son of Jolly Thomas, prime suspect in six mysterious deaths between 2002 and 2016, said here on Sunday, "A crime is a crime and the wrongdoer should be punished."

"I don't want to say anything. The probe by the crime branch is on. The truth should come out. I have got to stay strong as I have a younger brother. I can't afford to let him down," said Romo, 21.

His mother Jolly Thomas was arrested by the Kerala Police on Saturday in connection with inexplicable death of his father Roy Thomas and five other family members between 2002 and 2016. All the deaths were due to cyanide poisoning.

The police arrested two others as well for helping Jolly procure cyanide.

Renji Thomas, sister of Roy Thomas, said: "It doesn't matter if the crime took place 17-20 years ago. I always wanted to know how my parents and brother died. The truth is out now. I am not worried about the forensic report. Now, that's not my concern."

She urged people not to let any unnatural death go unprobed. "One should go forward to get an autopsy done, even though, many may not like the body to be opened up," she said.

She denied talk of property dispute in the family.

Meanwhile, the police have asked seven more people to turn up for questioning on Monday.

All these mysterious deaths took place in the family of retired government official Tom Thomas. The first to die was his wife and Jolly's mother-in-law Annamma, a retired teacher, 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 died. Then Roy's maternal uncle Mathew died in 2014.

The next year, two-year-old child of Sily, a relative by marriage, died. In 2016, Sily also passed away.

The meticulously planned killings, executed by Jolly (now 47), might not be limited to the elimination of only one family in Kozhikode, said Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Lok Nath Behera.

"It's too early to comment on the entire dynamics of the crime carried out by Jolly and her aides. Though it's a complex case to investigate, I don't rule out more such killings executed by them," Behera told .

"We are following certain leads and gathering information on previous linkages of Jolly to ascertain her criminal profile. At this moment, I can only say the police have done a great job to unravel the killings, which could have gone unnoticed," Behera said

The police began the probe into these deaths after Roy Thomas' brother Rojo, settled in the USA, approached the Superintendent of Police and expressed suspicion over the mysterious deaths.

In fact, Rojo was next in line to be eliminated by Jolly. However, as Rojo lived abroad, he and his family members remained out of the reach of the killers.

Once convinced with Rojo's revelations, the police exhumed the mortal remains of the deceased persons from graves and sent them for forensic examination. The initial reports indicated to poisoning.

( With inputs from IANS )