A court in Kochi on Thursday, October 13, granted the police custody of the three accused in the human sacrifice case, in which two women were brutally murdered in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. The court granted 12-days custody to the police for interrogation, collecting evidence and further investigation.
The court had on Wednesday remanded the prime accused Mohammed Shafi alias Rashid (52), Bhagaval Singh (68), and his wife Laila (59) to 14-day judicial custody. The police had, in a press meet held on October 12, said that Shafi is a history -sheeter. Bhagaval Singh is a traditional medicine practitioner, a haiku poet, and a former branch member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Elanthoor.
In the custody application filed before a local court in Kochi on Thursday, the police said that the accused need to be further interrogated to probe whether there were any other motives behind the crime. The police added that they need to investigate whether there are more victims of this horrific crime. “The gold ornaments of the deceased women are missing. It seems that they have been sold or pledged by the accused. They are yet to be traced,” the police said.
The custody application also said that the accused need to be taken to various places in Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts as part of evidence collection, and that they also need to probe the classes conducted by Bhagaval Singh and the persons associated with him.
The chopped body parts of the deceased were exhumed from the premises of the couple's house at Elanthoor village in Pathanamthitta on October 11. A woman from Ernakulam went missing on September 26 and the probe led the police to Shafi. On interrogating him, the police found that the trio had earlier murdered another woman in a similar manner in June.