2 Kerala women killed in suspected human sacrifice; 3 held

A suspected case of twin human sacrifices has shocked Kerala. Two women, who went missing from their respective villages, were found dead at Elanthoor village in Pathanamthitta district on Tuesday. Their throats were slit and the bodies hacked into pieces and buried on a farmland in a suspected “witchcraft ritual” to gain financial prosperity. Police have taken three persons into custody.

“We suspect that a ritualistic human sacrifice has taken place. We have to exhume the women’s bodies. They were beheaded, and their bodies were buried at Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta (around 120 km from Kochi). A few people are in police custody,” Kochi City police commissioner C H Nagaraju told the media.

Abducted and murdered

According to the police, the two women, Roslin and Padma, are from Ernakulam district. They were reported missing in June and September, respectively. Both were said to be in their early fifties. An agent from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district allegedly lured them from Kaladi and Kadavantra areas for a couple in Pathanamthitta district to conduct a ritual.

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The police identified the arrested persons as Bhagavanth Singh, a traditional healer, his wife Laila, and Rasheed alias Muhammad Shafi. While Singh and his wife are natives of Thiruvalla, Rasheed is a Perumbavoor native. The latter is suspected to have brought the women to the couple’s house for sacrifice.

“Killed for financial prosperity”

Nagaraju said the objective of human sacrifice was the couple’s financial prosperity. “We have already got confessional statements from the couple and the agent. The couple killed the women in a very cruel manner. They were facing a financial crisis and decided to sacrifice the women to appease God and overcome the crisis,” he said.

The bodies were found buried on a farmland next to the couple’s house, Nagaraju added.

A missing complaint filed on September 26 led police to the gruesome crime. Padma, a lottery vendor in Kochi, was abducted earlier that month. While investigating her case, police found out that Shafi had taken her away to Pathanamthitta district. After realising that she had been killed as a ritualistic sacrifice, police found out that she was not the only victim.

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“Shocks human conscience”

“Upon further interrogation, we found out that…another woman was also “sacrificed” similarly in the same house in June…by the same couple…and the woman was brought by the same person,” he said. Nagaraju added that Shafi had allegedly “convinced the couple that this (the sacrifice) should be done.”

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said strong legal action would be taken against the accused.

“The double murder at Pathanamthitta’s Elanthoor is something that shocks human conscience. The details that have come out show two women had their throats slit and their bodies buried. This kind of crime, where one kidnaps people to fulfil their superstitions and for financial gain, cannot be imagined in Kerala,” Vijayan said.