Ex-CPI-M functionary held for helping Jolly prepare fake will

Police on Friday arrested a former CPI(M) activist for allegedly helping the Koodathayi serial murder case accused Jolly prepare a fake will in her favour.

Police arrested Manoj, 41, after questioning him for hours here.

"Manoj was arrested after we questioned him. It's clear that he had signed as witness in the fake will and faked another person's signature also.

We are investigating his role in the killings too," the investigating officer told PTI.

Eight years after her husband's death following consumption of cyanide-laced food, Jolly and two others were arrested on October 5, and investigations into the death of five others of the family were on.

The arrests were in connection with the death of Roy Thomas in 2011, and the prime accused in the case was his wife Jolly.

The two other accused - M S Mathew, a close friend of Jolly, and Prajikumar, who allegedly supplied the cyanide to Mathew who in turn handed it over to the woman.

Police have recorded Jolly's arrest in all the six cases.

For the past two months, a special investigation team, based on a complaint from Roy's US-based brother, has been probing the case of six suspicious deaths that had occurred between 2002 and 2016.

While Annamma Thomas had died in 2002, her husband Tom Thomas died six years later in 2008. Later, their son Roy Thomas died in 2011.

Annamma's brother Mathew died in 2014 and two relatives - Sili and her one-year-old daughter in 2016.

Jolly later got married to Sili's husband Shaju.

Police had also questioned Shaju and his father in connection with the case.