Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 12: The gory incident of “human sacrifice” in Kerala may have yet another nauseating angle, cannibalism. The police suspect that at least one of the three accused in the case, a pervert, had consumed the cooked flesh of the victim women though they said they have no immediate evidence of cannibalism except the confessional statement of the other accused.
The Kadavanthra police had produced Muhammad Shafi, Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court 8, Ernakulam, on Wednesday morning and were remanded to police custody till October 26.
The police said the main accused in the murder and mutilation of two women was a man who trawled social media for women through a fake identity created in a female name and lured them to the house of the killer couple. Muhammad Shafi, the 52-year-old school dropout, was the “agent” who supplied the two women to the massage therapist couple, Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila. Shafi was out on bail in a 2020 case involving the sexual assault of a 75-year-old woman.
Shafi found the victims Roselin and Padma on Facebook and allegedly drew them to the couple’s house in Pathanamthitta. He had done so with other women in the past, the police said. Shafi allegedly promised the women money for acting in a pornographic film. At the same time, he “advised” Bhagaval Singh and Laila to carry out a human sacrifice to end their financial troubles, the police said.
Kochi DCP S Sasidharan, who cracked the missing persons cases, said Singh and Laila told the police that Shafi had eaten the cooked flesh of the private parts of the first victim Roselin. “We don’t have any corroborative evidence or other details to substantiate it. Only Shafi had consumed the human flesh as per the information,” added Sasidharan.
“He is not a person into black magic. A sexually perverted person, Shafi used black magic as a modus operandi in this case. In another situation, he would use some other methods to find victims and satiate his perversions.
Roselin disappeared in June and Padma in September. They both sold lottery tickets in Ernakulam. Victims Roselin and Padma were tied up and tortured before they were strangled, the police said. The women’s breasts were chopped off and the blood was allowed to flow out. Padma was strangled, beheaded, and cut into 56 pieces by Shafi, the police said. The remains were kept in a bucket. Roselin was strangled allegedly by Laila, and her breasts were cut off. The body parts were found from three pits.
“Shafi committed acts of sexual perversion on the women. He supplied women for sacrifice and cannibalism to clients,” said Kochi Police Chief CH Nagaraju. One of the women was tortured with a knife, the investigations indicate. “It seems like human flesh was consumed,” said Mr Nagaraju. Shafi was “addicted to sexual perversion, delighted in cruelty, and was a psychopath”, according to him. “We’re investigating whether there are more accused and if more such cases happened.”
The police were investigating the disappearance of Padma when they discovered the killings. The women’s phones were traced to Shafi. He was tracked down with the help of security footage and a Scorpio car he had abandoned. Investigations led the police to the house in Pathanamthitta, where the couple confessed. The police commissioner also referred to allegations of Shafi attempting to rape an elderly woman. The injuries she suffered were similar, he said.
Bhagaval Singh, a massage therapist and “healer” with a social media following, was reportedly associated with the state’s ruling CPI(M). The party, however, denied that he was a member. “He worked with us but wasn’t a member of our party. He once was a progressive man, but after his second marriage, he became a religious person. It might be the influence of his wife,” said PR Pradeep, a CPI(M) official.
Roselin disappeared in June, said the police, and Padma in September. They were murdered on June 6 and September 26, according to the police. It was on a complaint from Palani Amma, the sister of the deceased woman Padma, that the Kadavanthra police launched the investigation. Ms. Palani Amma had complained that Padma, who earned a living by selling lottery tickets, had gone missing since September 26, this year.
Investigations revealed that Shafi had taken her in a vehicle on September 26. The visuals of the accused taking the victim in a vehicle was obtained from the CCTV visuals, according to the remand report submitted by the police. On interrogation of the accused, it was revealed that the trio had murdered her at a house in Elanthur in Pathanamthitta district on the day. The accused had lured her after offering money to act in an adult movie, the report said. Investigations also revealed that the accused had murdered another woman, Roselin, on June this year, according to the remand report. The remains of the dead bodies of the two slain women were recovered from the house premise.
The remand report said the three accused entered into a conspiracy to commit human sacrifice for getting material prosperity for Singh and his wife. The accused had mutilated the body of the victims and sexually harassed them. The body parts were buried in the pits that were dug for the purpose, the remand report said.
The police had taken into custody the vehicle used for carrying the victim and the mobile phones used by the accused. The custody of the accused was necessary for investigating the case further and to recover the belongings of the victims, the police submitted before the court.
