Kozhikode: The remains of six members of a family have been exhumed after a relative suspected foul play behind the deaths between 2002 and 2016, police said on Friday. A local court had permitted the crime branch to exhume the bodies.
A top police official from the district told PTI that all the six had died after taking food and under similar circumstances over a period of 14 years.
Annamma Thomas died in 2002 followed by her husband Tom Thomas six years later in 2008. Later, their son Roy Thomas died in 2011. Annamma's brother Mathew died in 2014 and two relatives - a woman and her one-year-old child - died in 2016.
"We got the complaint that the deaths were orchestrated for a land-grab. We are probing from all angles," the official said. Most of the deceased had complained of uneasiness before their deaths.
A postmortem of Roy's body had found traces of cyanide and the death was considered as suicide. A case was registered after a foul play was suspected. It was found that a part of Tom's property had been lost after another relative was suspected of forging a will in their favour.
Annamma's other son Rojo, who is in the US, had filed the complaint against the land-grab. Police said they were waiting for reports of a forensic examination and keeping a few people under surveillance.
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