Kerala Human sacrifice case: Three sent to 14-day judicial custody
Kerala human sacrifice case: Accused couple ‘confesses’ to eating the flesh of women victims
Kerala human sacrifice case: Accused couple ‘confesses’ to eating flesh of women victims
ERNAKULAM: A First Class Judicial Court in Ernakulam, Kerala on Wednesday remanded three persons accused of brutally murdering two women in the name of “ritual human sacrifice for financial prosperity” — Mohammed Shafi alias Rasheed, Bhagaval Singh, his wife Laila — to judicial custody on 14 days. Shafi is the first accused in the case and Singh and Laila are the second and third accused.
They were charged with criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence. The police will try to take the accused into custody in the coming days. The investigation report said Shafi was the main conspirator in the case who planned and executed the killing of two women, Rosla (49) and Padmam (52), who was missing, to propitiate the goddess of financial prosperity.
Police said Shafi lured the two victims to Singh’s house in Elanthoor and offered them money for sex work, and the trio later tied them up, tortured, and killed them. According to the report, Laila killed Rosly by beheading while Shafi stabbed Padmam. The report states that Rosly Singh cut off her breasts after killing her.
The bodies were later cut into several pieces and buried in pits dug on the premises of Singh’s house before the murders. The gory details of the murder came to light during the investigation of a missing case registered by the Kadavanthara police. The case involved Padmam, a lottery saleswoman who lived in a one-room flat in Elamkulam and was reported missing by her son.
A police investigation based on CCTV and phone records led to the finding that the woman was taken to Thiruvalla by a man in a vehicle from Kochi. The police soon took the trio into custody, leading to the revelation that the woman was allegedly killed as part of a ritual human sacrifice conducted with the belief that it would bring prosperity to the accused.
Their interrogation also shed light on another missing case from Kalady. Rosly, a resident of Kalady near Angamaly, who went missing in June, was also allegedly murdered in a similar manner. Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju said Shafi was a psychopath and pervert who was killed for sadistic pleasure.
He befriended Singh and Laila through a Facebook profile named ‘Sreedevi’ and later addressed them as a divine man named Rasheed. Over the past four years, Shafi had influenced the couple to the point that they obeyed everything he asked. Shafi has 10 cases registered against him in the last ten years, including rape, theft and attempted murder.
A special team headed by DCP Kochi (law and order) Sasidharan will investigate the case. Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju suspected of cannibalism said that earlier when they interrogated Shafi, the main accused, they found nothing.
“Scientific investigation led us to Pathanamthitta. Shafi is the main conspirator and a pervert, we found out during the investigation. There is a possibility that the accused ate the body parts after killing the victims.
It is being investigated, but it is not confirmed yet. We are investigating if there are more accused and whether more such cases have happened,” Nagaraju said.
