Black Magic, Cannibalism, CPI(M) Connect: Kerala 'Human Sacrifice' Killings, All You Need To Know

While the "human sacrifice" incident has been decried as "disgraceful" by political parties and organisations in Kerela, the shocking details of the incident have been going viral on social media.?

Human sacrifice in Kerala: How did it happen?

Two women were allegedly sacrificed as part of a black magic ritual?in a village in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala.?The body parts of the victims were cut into pieces before being buried in two locations at Elanthoor, police revealed to the media, quoting the confession by the accused. According to a report in NDTV, one of the victim's bodies was mutilated and cut into as many as 56 pieces while the other's breasts were cut off. Both were strangled.

Since the bodies were chopped into pieces, police are probing the possibility of a cannibalism angle as well.?

The remains of the victims were found in the house of a couple.?The twin murders were discovered during an investigation into a recent missing persons' report filed by the kin of one of the accused.?

Who were the victims?

The two women,?Roselin and Padma, were natives of Kadavanthara here and Kalady and?earned their daily bread selling lottery tickets on the streets of?Ernakulam. Both?women, nearing their 50s,?went missing?this year. Padma disappeared in September after Roselin who had disappeared in June this year.?

Roselin?was Kalady native and?living there with her partner for some time. A?missing complaint was filed by her daughter on August 17.

?eventual probe, based on their mobile phone details and tower locations, unravelled the story of human sacrifice. Padma, originally from Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, went missing on August 17, as per the complaint of her sister.

Who are the accused?

The crime was reportedly carried out by?Bhagaval Singh, reportedly a traditional massage therapist and healer belonging to a locally known "vaidya" family and his wife Laila. They both were natives of Thiruvalla. The third and key?accused in the case is Rasheed alias Muhammand Shafi, a Perumbavoor native, who is?suspected to have lured and brought the now-deceased women to the house of the couple where the sacrifice was said to have been done. According to reports, it was Shafi's job to scope out women?on social media before killing and mutilating them. It is Shafi who found the victims on social media and offered them money for acting in a pornographic film as pretext to invite them to the couple's house while convincing the couple to carry out a "human sacrifice" ritual to end their financial troubles.

According to a report in NDTV, Shafi is a repeat offender and was out on bail in a 2020 sexual assault case of a 75-year-old woman when the recent killings occurred. Meanwhile, one of the killers has been linked to the ruling CPI(M).?BJP State chief K Surendran alleged that one of the killers, Bhagaval Singh, was a CPI (M) activist and there was also the intervention of radical religious groups in the crime.

Why were the women killed?

According to Kochi?City Police, the killings were part of a human sacrifice ritual.?

"During our investigation regarding the missing woman from Kadavanthara, we came to know that she was killed in that couple's house in Thiruvalla and her body was buried after being cut into pieces there. It was a human sacrifice for financial benefit of that couple," Kochi City Police Commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam told PTI.?

The Police Chief also told media that Shafi, one of the three accused,?was "addicted to sexual perversion and delighted in cruelty".?

How have political parties reacted?

The alleged connections of Singh, one of the accused, with the ruling CPI(M), triggered a political row as the opposition Congress and BJP used the incident as a tool to attack the Left government.

Without directly mentioning media reports that Singh was a local activist of the ruling CPI (M), Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, ?V D Satheesan said it was significant that one of the killers was an active worker of a political party, which claims to be progressive.?"Therefore, an honest and fair investigation should be ensured without any external interference," the Congress leader added.?

Senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday condemned the 'human sacrifice' and strongly criticised the CPI (M)-led government, alleging that the crimes against women were on the rise in the state.?The leader also accused the?Marxist party government of remaining?silent when crimes against women were on the rise in the state.

DYFI, the youth organisation of the ruling CPI(M), on Tuesday held a protest-march towards the house at nearby Elanthoor where the two women's bodies were found and called the incident a "disgrace"?to the State of Kerala which is a model in the country on various social, cultural and literacy factors.

(With inputs from PTI)