Jolly Joseph is an Indian suspected criminal who is said to be the prime accused in the murder of six members of his family in Koodathai, Kozhikode district of Kerala over a period of about 14 years.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Jolly Joseph aka Jollyamma was born in 1972 (age 51 years; as in 2023) in Vazhavara, Idukki, Kerala. He did his schooling at St. Mary’s High School, Vazhavara. From 1998 to 1991, he pursued his graduation from MES College, Nedumkandam, Kerala. Reportedly, she told her in-laws that she has done B.Tech and is a visiting professor at the National Institute of Technology (NIT). Meanwhile, his neighbors told that he told them that he has done M.Com.
Jolly Joseph in his college
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 5″
Hair Color: Black
Eye colour: dark brown
Family
He belongs to a middle-class Roman Catholic family.
parents and siblings
His father K Joseph is a farmer and owns a ration shop. His mother is suffering from mental illness. She has two elder brothers and two elder sisters and a younger brother named Nobby Thomas. One of his elder sisters is deaf and mute.
Jolly Joseph’s father
husband and children
In 1997, Jolly had a love marriage with Roy Thomas. Jolly has two sons with Roy Thomas named Romo Thomas and Ronald Thomas.
Jolly Joseph with Roy Thomas and his children
A photo of Jolly Joseph’s son Romo
In 2016, after her husband passed away, she married Roy Thomas’s first cousin Shaju Zakaria, who was a school teacher.
Jolly Joseph with her second husband Shaju
Address
Ponnamattam Veedu, Koodathai Market, Koodathai Village, Thamarassery, Kozhikode, Kerala
trash cyanide murders
death of family members
After her marriage to Roy, she moved to Roy Thomas’s ancestral home in Koodathayai, where her father-in-law Tom Thomas, mother-in-law Annamma Thomas and some other members lived.
Jolly Joseph’s House
In 2002, her mother-in-law passed away due to some health problems. In 2008, his father-in-law also died of a heart attack and was foaming at the mouth at the time of his death. Within three years her husband Roy died. Just moments before his death, foam was coming out of his father’s mouth. After Roy passed away, his maternal uncle Mathew Manjadiyil insisted on a post-mortem as he suspected something was wrong. The post-mortem report revealed that Roy had consumed cyanide, a chemical commonly used in mining and jewelery making. The local police considered it a case of suicide and did not investigate the matter. After Roy’s demise, Jolly started maintaining distance from her relatives and neighbours. However, his neighbors assumed that he was in a bad phase of his life, so they did not pay much attention to it. Deaths continued in their household and in 2014, her husband Roy’s uncle Mathew Manjadiyal died of a heart attack and then in the same year Roy Thomas’s cousin Shaju Sakharias’s two-year-old daughter Alfeen died. Shaju Sakharias’ wife Sili Sakharias also passed away in 2016.
Jolly Joseph’s family members
After several deaths in the same house, Jolly’s relatives and neighbors started believing that the house was cursed or possessed by some negative energies. Matters took a different turn in 2017 when Jolly married her husband Roy’s cousin Shaju Sakharia.
Investigation and arrests
After the death of Jolly’s first husband Roy, the property was transferred to Jolly instead of Roy’s real brother Rojo Thomas. After this Rojo started gathering information about Jolly’s past. Initially, Rojo finds out that Jolly was lying about her job at NIT. Rojo also asked for a copy of Roy Thomas’s autopsy. They came to know that Jolly had said that she had made omelette for Roy but according to the post mortem report, Roy had eaten rice and gram curry for dinner before he died. Later, Rojo along with her sister lodged a complaint at the district police station, which was forwarded to Thamarassery police station near Kozhikode. However, his complaint was rejected as it was registered as a case of suicide. Rojo then went to the crime unit of the Kozhikode police which agreed to investigate the case. Initially, the police confirmed that she was not working in the NIT and found around 50 discrepancies between her statements and the evidence given to the police. Since no post-mortem was conducted on any of the dead family members except Roy, the local crime unit of the Kozhikode police decided to exhume the buried bodies of Jolly’s family members for further investigation. After almost two months of investigation, Kozhikode District Superintendent of Police KG Simon held a press conference and shared that Joseph was arrested as he had confessed to his crime that he had poisoned all the six members of the family with cyanide. Had murdered.
Jolly Joseph on being arrested
Local police said that he had murdered Roy for his property and other assets. According to the local crime unit of Kozhikode police, in October 2019, Jolly confessed that he had used cyanide to kill six of his family members with the help of MS Mathew (jewellery shop employee) and Praji Kumar (goldsmith). According to the police, MS Mathew, a jewelery shop employee and relative of Jolly, helped Jolly by providing cyanide from goldsmith Praji Kumar. Reportedly, Mathew said he gave Rs 5000 and two bottles of liquor to Praji in exchange for cyanide. In defence, Mathew said that Jolly had asked him to provide cyanide to kill rats at his house.
working style
According to the local crime unit of the Kozhikode police, Jolly poisoned her in-laws by putting cyanide in their food to gain control over the family finances. After the demise of her in-laws, her relationship with her husband Roy deteriorated, so she poisoned him with cyanide poison. She then killed her husband’s uncle Manjadiyal by mixing cyanide in alcohol; Since he was closely observing the murders. In order to marry Shaju, he killed his wife and daughter by mixing cyanide in their food. However, no concrete evidence was found against him. Her second husband Shaju was also under suspicion, but no evidence was found against him.
Result
In 2023, Jolly’s lawyer BA Aloor approached the Kerala High Court to acquit her as she was jailed without any solid evidence. However, the court rejected the plea and said that the material on record was prima facie sufficient to see that his involvement in the murder could be suspected.
In popular culture
In 2019, the story of Jolly’s cyanide murder was depicted in episodes 100, 101 and 102 of the popular Hindi TV series ‘Crime Patrol Satark’ aired on Sony TV.
A scene from an episode of Crime Patrol
In the same year, a Malayalam TV serial titled ‘Kudathayi’ based on Jolly’s case was aired on Flowers TV.
Kudathayi
On 7 September 2020, an English podcast ‘Death, Lies and Cyanide’ was launched on Spotify narrated by Indian journalist Shashi Kumar. The podcast consists of ten episodes.
Death, lies and cyanide
On 22 December 2023, a Netflix documentary series ‘Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case’ was released on Netflix. The documentary is available in six languages.
Curry and Cyanide – Jolly Joseph Case
Facts/General Knowledge
- Her neighbors had once told that Jolly was a very talkative and well-behaved child.
- She regularly visited churches in her neighborhood and attended Sunday services.
- According to Kozhikode Police, she has confessed that she hated girls and had undergone abortion twice because she was expecting the birth of a girl.
- Speaking to a reporter, one of his neighbors said that Jolly had a habit of stealing. She once stole money from her home and later, when she was in college, she stole a gold bangle from her classmate. When Jolly’s father came to know about this, his father beat him so badly that even his hand was broken.
- In 2020, Jolly reportedly tried to commit suicide in the prison where she was incarcerated. After this he was immediately taken to the Medical College of Kozhikode.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn