Kerala ‘human sacrifice’ case: Accused ate flesh of one of the victims, say police

The victims were both lottery vendors, who were lured and trapped by Shafi offering money to act in a porn video.

Thiruvananthapuram: Probing the case of the killings of two women as part of ‘human sacrifice for financial prosperity’, the police said Wednesday the three arrested accused had consumed the flesh of one of their victims.

Healer and masseur Bhagaval Singh, his wife Laila, and restaurant owner Muhammed Shafi alias Rasheed were arrested Tuesday in connection with the killings of Rosly, 49, and Padmam, 52, who had been missing. The three were remanded to judicial custody till October 26 by a magistrate’s court in Kochi Wednesday.

Kochi city police commissioner C H Nagaraju told the media, “We have information that they (the accused persons) had consumed the flesh of the first victim Rosly. There is information, but we don’t have any evidence. Looking at the case, there is a chance for such an incident and we are looking into it”.

The victims were both lottery vendors, who were lured and trapped by Shafi offering money to act in a porn video.

They also frequented the same low-cost restaurant in Kochi, until they went missing—Rosly on June 6, and Padmam on September 26. The police suspect that the women were killed within 24 hours after they went missing from Ernakulam.

The killings came to light when the police were probing a missing person case, filed by Padmam’s family. Originally from Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, Padmam had been living in Kochi. Her family filed a police complaint on September 27, a day after she went missing. The police found that Padmam had been in touch with Shafi, who was earlier named in several criminal cases including drug peddling, assaults and rape, after analysing call records.