Guilty Until Proven Otherwise?

THE KOODATHAYI MURDERS in Kerala were always going to be fertile tabloid material. Here was an average middle-aged woman, Jolly Joseph, in what seemed a perfectly regular life suddenly being revealed as someone who had, over 14 years, murdered six members of her family by poisoning them with cyanide. The state was riveted and there was even news at one point that its biggest su­perstar, Mohanlal, would be making a movie about it. Recently, Netflix came out with a documentary on it titled Curry & Cyanide with interviews of family, the police and others associ­ated with Joseph. It was a well-made feature, got decent reviews and became a point of conversation.

But then a forensic professor, Krishnan Balendran, put up a Facebook post posing a few questions. He pointed out something basic that everyone seemed to have glossed over. That Joseph’s trial was still continuing and she had not been convicted yet. He asked how it could be okay that investi­gating officers who were yet to depose in court had appeared in the documen­tary to give statements and how that would not have an impact on a fair trial. He also pointed out that the cyanide Joseph is held to have given to all her victims has been conclusively found in just one body, the rest are assumptions.

This is in keeping with how the media and the police operate in India. The very sensational nature of the crime becomes a licence to vilify the reputation of the accused. The police build a narrative, usually as unnamed sources, and newspapers and televi­sion channels lap it up because there is really no culture of investigative crime journalism. When was the last story you read in the media where its report­ing actually showed an accused was innocent?

There is a precedent as to why it is not wise to assume guilt in cases like that of Joseph, where everyone comes together to assume guilt and then the judiciary, much belatedly, finds other­wise. This was what happened in the murders of children in Nithari, Noida. In 2006, Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli were arrested and, predictably, the reporting since then has been that they were serial kill­ers with various theories embellished, from cannibalism to necrophilia. A documentary was made on it about a decade later and also aired on Netflix. Last year, the high court acquitted both of them, citing lack of evidence.

All through the interregnum, no one had thought to be circumspect about the certainty of Pandher and Koli being monsters. Whether the evidence against Joseph will hold up will only be known once the trial is over. Even after that, as with the Nithari case, the higher judiciary, less prone to be swayed by public sentiment, might have an opin­ion on how the investigations were conducted even if a confession exists. But what else can a documentary that starts off by assuming that the prosecu­tion’s version is the abiding truth do but look for more of that truth?

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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