Who exactly is Jolly Joseph and what happened to him this time?
A documentary titled Curry & Cyanide – The Jolly Joseph Case released on Netflix on Friday (22/12/2023), tells the story of the murder committed by Jolly Joseph. The case had made headlines in India and other countries in 2019 before being made into a movie.
There may be some people iwho don’t know Jolly Joseph. Who exactly is Jolly Joseph? And what happened to him this time?
1. Background of Jolly Joseph
Who is Jolly Joseph? He is a farmer who was born and raised in Kattappana, Idukki District. Despite only completing junior high school, Jolly claims to have a master’s degree in commerce, which he actually falsified.
Jolly and Roy planned to get married despite Roy’s father, Tom Thomas, disagreeing with their marriage. This was because Jolly was related to her husband Roy. Jolly is the daughter of Manchadiyil’s brother-in-law Mathew, who is Roy’s first uncle.
However, they eventually got married in 1997 and had two children named Remo and Reynold. Jolly was known for being cheerful, flamboyant, and synonymous with the unusual use of high-heeled sandals at the time. Jolly was also known as a friendly person and was well-liked by family and neighbors.
2. Jolly’s series of murders
According to a report from The Review Geek, Jolly Joseph is accused of committing six murders against the Ponnamattam family over 14 years. As seen in his documentary, he was arrested in 2019 for allegedly killing her husband, Roy Thomas, and being involved in five other murders.
The first victim was Annamma Thomas, Jolly’s mother-in-law, who died in 2002. Annamma’s death was initially suspected to be a heart attack, but later suspicions were raised that she was poisoned with cyanide.
Six years later, in 2008, Tom Thomas, Annamma’s husband, died after taking mushroom capsules for depression. It was suspected that Jolly had replaced the contents of the capsule with cyanide.
In 2011, Jolly lost her husband, Roy Thomas, after they had a rice and curry dinner together. While the previous two deaths were not medically examined, this was not the case for Roy’s body. After an autopsy, it was revealed that there was cyanide found in her husband’s body.
Later, in 2014, Mathew Manjayadil, Roy’s uncle, also died after drinking a drink containing cyanide. In the same year, Jolly also allegedly poisoned Alphine Shaju, his 2-year-old niece.
After committing the murder of Alphine, the child of Shaju Zachariah, Jolly also killed the child’s mother, Sily Shaju. The motive was to enable him to marry Shaju and not be bothered by the presence of his youngest child. Just like the Tom Thomas case, Sily also consumed mushroom capsules that had actually been replaced with cyanide.
3. What Happened to Him This Time?
In 2016, she married for the second time to Shaju Zachariah. After the crime came to light, Shaju appeared in the media and claimed that the murder was just a property dispute.
In 2019, he was later arrested after his brothers-in-law, Rojo Thomas and Renji Thomas, reported their suspicions of the murder of six members of the Ponnamattam family.
Based on information from the documentary “Curry & Cyanide – The Jolly Joseph Case” the trial of this case started on March 6, 2023 and is still ongoing. Jolly Joseph is currently detained in Kozhikode jail.
