Kozhikode: The Kerala police probing the mysterious deaths of six people in a family between 2002 to 2016 arrested the prime accused in the case on Saturday.
According to reports, the police on Friday had exhumed the dead bodies for a scientific probe. The police had dug their graves in the cemetery at two churches near here, to take samples for conducting scientific tests.
The deaths occurred in the family of a retired government official Tom Thomas. The first to die was his wife, retired teacher Annamma in 2002, followed by Thomas in 2008. Then in 2011, their son Roy died followed by the death of his maternal uncle Mathew in 2014.
Then the next year, the two-year-old child of Sily, a relative by marriage of the family died and in 2016. The police began the probe after Rojo, the son of the couple and settled in the US, lodged a complaint.
Now, the police have detained Joy wife of Roy, who is accused of poisoning the soup which might have led to the tragic death of six members of the family.
Speaking to the media soon after the exhumation, superintendent of police K.T. Simon had said that the probe is going on in the right direction.
"One thing that has happened in all these deaths is that all of them died soon after taking food. Kerala Police is quite capable of unravelling any case and it has proved in the past also when it has solved cases which are much older than this one," he said.
According to the police, the exhumation was done after finding the death of Roy was caused due to poisoning and the police probe team after questioning a few suspects decided to conduct a detailed probe into the other deaths by exhuming the bodies.
The police have now asked a few people, who have been questioned earlier, to make themselves available at any time to be present for further questioning.
The police also have noticed that there were a few property deals that took place in the family, which was one of the reasons for Rojo to file a complaint with the police.
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