Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police believe that the mystery behind the deaths of four members of a family in Pinarayi, in the northern district of Kannur, has been solved after taking into custody the sole remaining member of the house, 28-year-old Vannathamkandi Soumya.
All four of the deceased — Soumya’s two daughters and her parents — had died over the past six years, each one succumbing to a bout of severe vomiting.
Police suspect that Soumya, who was living apart from her husband, had fed them rat poison.
The mystery deaths began in September 2012 when Soumya’s one-year-old daughter, Keerthana, died. Then, six years later, the three others in the house died one after the other: her elder daughter, Aiswarya, in January; her mother, Kamala, in March; and her father, Kunhikannan, on April 13.
Soumya herself was then admitted to hospital, which police believe was a ruse to show that she too was afflicted by the mysterious disease that claimed her family members.
She was taken into custody on Monday, and after a gruelling 11 hours of questioning, she reportedly confessed that she had administered rat poison to her family members by mixing it in their food.
Police believe she committed the crimes to be with her paramours, getting rid of her family members who she thought were obstacles to her relationships.
When police grew suspicious of the series of deaths, they exhumed the body of Aiswarya for a post-mortem.
Scientific examination showed that the victim’s body had traces of aluminium phosphide, which is used in rat poison. Police were also suspicious that no trace of the poison was found in Soumya’s blood samples when she was admitted to hospital.
She had been admitted to the Thalassery cooperative hospital, from where she was taken into custody by police for questioning.
