One of the accused in the sensational Kerala ‘human sacrifice’ case, which has stunned the nation, has confessed that they cooked the flesh of their victims and ate it, according to the police.
Mohammed Shafi, 52, Bhagaval Singh, 68, and his wife, Laila, 59, are accused of torturing and killing two women – Padma and Roslin. Shafi, the prime accused, convinced the couple that a human sacrifice will improve their financial fortunes.
According to the remand report, the victims were tortured. The breasts of one of them were chopped off; the body of the other victim was cut into 56 pieces.
The victims were tied to a cot while they were alive and the accused used a knife to inflict severe injuries to their genitals.
Laila said they cooked the flesh of the women and ate it, as suggested by Shafi, so that the ritual would come to fruition.
Their bodies were buried in the couple’s house in Elanthoor village, Pathanamthitta district, the report said.
“The accused conspired to conduct a human sacrifice with an intention to bring prosperity in the life of the second and third accused by pleasing a deity,” it said.
Shafi brought one of the women to Singh’s house by offering Rs15,000 for sex work, it said.
The other was promised Rs10 lakh to act in a porn film and brought to the crime scene, it added.
All three accused were produced before a court in Kochi on Wednesday and remanded in judicial custody.
Advocate BA Aloor, who has represented Shafi in the past, appeared for the trio.
CH Nagaraju, District Police Chief, Kochi City, told The Free Press Journal that the police will move court today to seek their custody.
Addressing a press conference shortly after the three were remanded, Mr Nagaraju said Shafi derived sadistic pleasure from injuring and killing his victims. He has around 10 cases, including rape, theft, and attempt to murder, registered against him, the police chief said.
“The injuries he [Shafi] inflicted on the private parts of the two victims were similar to what he had done to a 75-year-old woman he was accused of raping in 2020,” Mr Nagaraju said.
“Whenever he decided to commit a crime, he developed relations and trapped others as partners. In this case, he trapped the second accused, Bhagaval Singh, through a false social media profile, offering solutions to those in financial distress. He won the confidence of Singh and his wife Laila over the last three years, visited their home and exploited their vulnerability to commit the human sacrifice.”
Shafi even had sex with Laila in the presence of her husband, he said.
The police chief said Shafi murdered Padma, but the couple took part in her torture and dismemberment. Laila, on Shafi’s instructions, murdered Roslin.
The investigation to trace Padma, a lottery vendor who went missing in September from Elamkulam, near Kochi, led to the discovery of Roslin, a Chalakudy resident who disappeared in June, he said.
“Shafi put up stiff resistance and revealed nothing and we had to use scientific investigation and other techniques to eventually break him. The task of rummaging through CCTV images between Kadavanthra and Thiruvalla that returned a blurred image of the victim [Padma] entering a vehicle with him proved crucial,” said S Sasidharan, Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order).
