David Bridges
The Facebook posts of Bhagaval Singh, the traditional medical practitioner, arrested on charges of human sacrifice in Kerala, revealed that he had a penchant for short poems — Japanese Haiku with 17 syllables. Days before he was arrested along with his wife Laila and the mastermind of the case Shafi, he posted one haiku on October 6. Earlier too, he posted such poems. Also Read | Kerala black magic, cannibalism: Who are the Kerala couple and self-proclaimed ‘sorcerer’?
Bhagaval Singh was active on Facebook and, in fact, came in contact with Shafi alias Rasheed through Facebook. In his profile bio, Bhagaval wrote he is from Kozhancheri, went to a government school in Elanthoor and studied at St Thomas College. Two family members have also been identified as sons in his profile. “Self-employed in the field of alternative medicine and Marma system of therapy which is well spread and accepted by people,” his Facebook bio read. “I plant and nourish various species of herbs of great medical value. Under the supervision of academic personnel, we treat accident-borne complaints, various type of arthritis, paralectic, bone setting and after cure,” it said.
Bhagaval Singh was also believed to be a local activist of CPM, a charge brought by the opposition which the party dismissed and said the couple were not party members and did not hold any post in the party or its associated organisations.
Gory details of the human sacrifices emerged as sexual assault, cannibalism, sadism, and conspiracy are suspected. Through an ad promising wealth, Bhagaval and Laila contacted Shafi who asked them to perform human sacrifice which led to the murder of two women. The police reached the three killers investigating a mysterious disappearance case and found that a similar incident took place a few months ago. The cops are investigating whether more women were sacrificed by the three.
It has been revealed that before killing, the accused brutally hurt the victims and then cut their bodies into pieces. They might have cooked some part of the body and consumedit, police suspected. “Lots of rumours are coming in this case. We will probe all the rumours regarding the accused Shafi has brought more women to Pathanamthitta,” Kochi deputy commissioner of police S Sasidharan said on Thursday as the Kochi court sent the three accused to 12-day police custody.
Clara Hastings
