Police record statement of Rojo in murder case

: In a marathon nine hour sitting, police on Tuesday recorded the statement of Rojo, the US-based brother of Roy Thomas, on whose complaint the probe began into the case relating to the suspicious deaths of six members of a family here over a 14 year period from 2002.

The statement of Renji, Rojo's sister, was also recorded.

The prime accused in the case, Jolly Joseph, wife of Roy Thomas, was arrested early this month, along with two others.

Six separate cases have been registered by police and investigation is in progress.

Rojo Thomas, who arrived in Kerala from the US on Monday, appeared before Investigating Officers at the Kozhikode Rural Superintendent of Police office at Vatakara this morning with Renji and two sons of Roy Thomas and was questioned in detail.

Rojo told reporters tonight that there was a lot of pressure from Jolly to withdraw the case, which was not agreeable to him and his sister.

"I am fully satisfied with the ongoing probe", he said, adding that the deceased and living should get justice.

Jolly Joseph was also brought to the SP's office and interrogated, police said.

As the probe into the case progressed, the truth about Jolly "teacher", who had deceived everyone for 14 years, pretending to be a lecturer of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kozhikode, also came out.

The deaths had occurred between 2002-2016.

As investigations began, the remains of the family members were exhumed for evidence collection.

The post mortem had been conducted only on the body of Roy and traces of cyanide had been found in 2011.

Besides, Jolly, --M S Mathew (44), a close friend of the prime accused and Prajikumar(48), who had allegedly supplied cyanide to Mathew, have been arrested.

Among the dead were Annamma (2002) and Tom Thomas (2008), the parents of Roy who died in 2011.

Their three other relatives, including a one-year-old girl child, had also died in a suspicious manner.

Jolly married Roy's relative Shaju in 2017, whose wife and daughter had also died under suspicious circumstances.

Police had late on Monday night taken Jolly to the house in Koodathayi where the first three deaths of Roy and his parents had taken place for another round of collecting evidence.