[WARNING: STORY CONTAINS A GRAPHIC IMAGE]
Another twist developed in the Jolly Joseph murder saga on Tuesday. The name of a popular astrologer from Kattapana in Kerala’s Idukki district was released by the police, who are investigating the death of Roy Thomas, Jolly’s first husband allegedly poisoned by her. Malayalam media channels called him a “manthravathi”, or a sorcerer.
Connection to the case
The astrologer is suspected to have some connection to the death of Roy Thomas. When Roy died in 2011, an amulet given by an astrologer named Krishnakumar was found on Roy’s body. His card and a small packet containing a powder mix was also discovered from Roy's pocket.
Upon inquisition Jolly Joseph told the police that her husband used to visit a popular astrologer from Kattapana. The town Jolly's parents live.
She also reportedly said that Roy consumed the powdered mix that the man gave him regularly.
Since at the time, Roy's death was considered as suicide, police had handed the amulet and the packet to Jolly following her request, according to media reports.
According to local media, after news of Jolly’s arrest spread, Krishnakumar went missing from his Kattappana home called Krishnakripa.
Dodgy personality
According to a Gulf News source, people in the neighbourhood have the opinion that the astrologer was a “dodgy character”.
He has three phone numbers according to his social media page and two of them are switched off. No one answered the third number.
The Gulf News source also confirmed that his neighbours say there have been past reports of him conning people in the name of astrology and pretending to have psychic powers.
“Wealthy people would come to see him and pay to get bad spells done on people they disliked. He was not straight at all,” said the source.
Popular astrologer with two Facebook profiles
Despite the negative opinion, Krishnakumar seems to be quite a popular astrologer. On one of his Facebook pages are many pictures of him being awarded and honoured by popular ministers from Kerala including K. Muraleedharan, PK Abdu Rabb, VS Sivakumar and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. There are also reports that popular film stars used to consult Krishnakumar. His profile says he is 39 years old.
On this page there are also numerous planned studio pictures of him with photos of notes written in Malayalam that invite people to befriend him, with his phone number. And one note in particular appears to be written in blood.
