Koodathayi Cyanide Murders: Kerala High Court allows in-camera trial of Jolly Joseph to continue

The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a petition moved by Jollyamma Joseph, the prime accused in the Koodathayi cyanide murders, seeking a direction to the trial court to conduct the trial in open court and instead of holding it in-camera [Jollyamma Joseph @ Jolly v State of Kerala & Anr.]..Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas refused to interfere with the decision of the Sessions Court, Kozhikode, to conduct the trial proceedings in-camera. .The Koodathayi cyanide murders refer to the mysterious deaths of 6 persons in Kerala's Koodathayi. All the victims were close relatives of Jollyamma, also known as Jolly.Three of the persons alleged to have been murdered by Jolly through cyanide poisoning were her then-husband Roy Thomas and his parents..Koodathayi Murders: Kerala High Court refuses to interfere with trial court order framing charges against Jolly Joseph.In her present plea, Jolly challenged the order of the trial court that had directed in-camera proceedings allegedly without either party filing any petition in that regard and without hearing any of the parties.She contended that the said order has to be re-called as Section 327 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) permits only open court proceedings when the prosecution and all the accused persons have no objection to it.It was further submitted that she had filed a petition before the trial court to only restrict media persons inside the premises and it was not with an intention to proceed with in-camera trial.Moreover, persons from the legal fraternity including law students are eagerly waiting to watch the case proceedings and by conducting in-trial proceedings they are being denied that opportunity, it was argued.The plea said that there is no need of protection and privacy of the parties involved in the cases when the trial proceedings are not related to offences of rape, terrorist activities etc..However, the High Court dismissed the petition, effectively allowing the in-camera trial to continue.The petitioner was represented by advocate BA Aloor.The State was represented by Additional Director General of Prosecution, Senior Advocate Grashious Kuriakose..[Read Order]