The Kerala police has postponed the launch of its documentary series on YouTube, its pilot episode on the Koodathayi murder saga was to release on Tuesday.
The decision to postpone the launch came after the Kerala High Court issued a 11-day stay order on a television series that is currently running and a movie which focused on the serial murder allegedly committed by a woman named Jolly Joseph. Perhaps wanting to take no risks, the Kerala Police State Media Centre which produced the documentary series in house decided to wait for further word from the court, before releasing it.
"We had decided to do a 20-30 minute series exploring sensational crimes busted by the Kerala police in the past. We started off with the Koodathayi saga - a case where prime suspect Jolly Joseph is accused to have murdered 6 members of her family with cyanide laced food and water," explained VP Pramod Kumar, deputy director of the State Police Media Centre.
The sensational serial murders which gained nation-wide attention was probed by a Special Investigation Team headed by Kozhikode Rural SP KG Simon. On February 10, 2020, the 6th and final chargesheet was submitted by the SIT in the court, concluding the months long investigation into the serial murders.
"Unlike a web-series or show, there are no costumes, make-up or even acting involved in our episodes. The entire series would feature Investigating officers who were in charge of different cases in Kerala, narrating how they carried out the probe and arrived at the accused persons. Details of the complaint, investigation, identification of accused and how the crime was proved would be explained by the officers. For our first episode, KG Simon explains for over 20 minutes how his team cracked the high-profile Jolly case," Pramod said, adding that the goal was to increase public awareness on the work done by the Kerala police and their level of efficiency.
The documentary series had been entirely produced by the 10-member team of the State Police Media Centre, who also handle the Kerala Police's social media pages, press releases and ad campaigns.
"We have a photography unit in our centre and some people knew how to edit. No part of the series has been outsourced for any work- be it editing, post production or shooting. We did it with the available manpower and with no additional costs to the state exchequer," Pramod added. Four months ago, the Kerala police began a YouTube channel with the goal of expanding their social media presence.
"We have produced several in-house documentaries earlier too for the channel. Recently we decided to start a series explaining how the most sensational cases in Kerala was investigated," Pramod added.
The documentary is in a narration-only format with no graphics, scenes or footage from the investigation being included in the show.