A 47-year-old woman, arrested in Kerala on Saturday with two accomplices, is suspected to have poisoned to death her husband and five relatives over a period of 14 years.

The arrests came a day after police exhumed the bodies of six people. The victims belonged to one family based in Koodathayi in Kozhikode district of north Kerala.

Vadakara rural superintendent of police K.G. Simon told journalists that Jolly and the others were arrested for the October 2011 murder of her husband Roy Mathew.

“But she has confessed that she plotted and killed all six by poisoning their food with cyanide,” Simon said. The probe began two months ago.

“We started investigating Roy Mathew’s death after his brother (Rojo) filed a complaint suspecting foul play. Although we have unearthed several pieces of circumstantial evidence in the other five cases, we are not yet ready to arrest Jolly in those cases,” he added.

The series of deaths began with Roy’s mother Annamma Thomas, a retired teacher who died in 2002. Next was his father Tom Thomas, a retired officer of the state education department, who too died in 2002. Both collapsed while eating, and the family thought they had choked over their food.

When Roy died in 2011, a post-mortem found traces of potassium cyanide in his body. But Jolly told the police her husband was under immense pressure over financial issues, and no investigation was conducted.

Annamma’s brother M.M. Mathew, who lived in the neighbourhood, died in 2014.

“We have obtained evidence to prove that Mathew had insisted on a detailed investigation after Roy died,” Simon said.

Siny, a niece of Tom Thomas, died after a meal in 2016. She left behind her husband Shaju and one-year-old daughter Alphine. A few months later, Alphine also died after she was hospitalised for a day.

Within months, Shaju married Jolly against severe opposition from both families and their parish.

Shaju and his father Zakaria were interrogated on Saturday.

“I am not ready to reveal any more details,” Simon said when asked if Shaju was also part of the murder plot.

The officer said the investigation would probe why no post-mortem was done in five cases, barring Roy’s.

The prima facie motive for the murders appears to be property because Tom Thomas had written a will passing on all his properties to Jolly. “But we have now found that he had withdrawn that will soon after. We will look into the reasons that led to writing the will and then withdrawing it,” said Simon.

When Roy’s brother sought a probe two months ago, the case was reopened and the police found that Jolly was present at the time of the deaths of all the six. Over 200 people were questioned.

Her accomplices who were arrested are Mathew, 44, who works at a local jewellery shop, and his friend and goldsmith Prajukumar, 48, who allegedly supplied the potassium cyanide.

During the probe the police also found that Jolly used to describe herself as a lecturer at National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode. “She is a

BCom graduate as per our information. But she has been carrying a fake identity card of an NIT lecturer and went about telling people that she is a B.Tech,” said Simon.