As the Kerala “human sacrifice” case unravels, chilling details of suspected cannibalism – eating of human flesh by humans – have emerged.
Two women were allegedly killed and their body parts were chopped as part of a “black magic” ritual in Elanthoor village of Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. Roslyn, 49, and Padmam, 52, were promised money by Muhammad Shafi, the main accused in the murder case, who convinced them to act in a pornographic film. The victims were then supplied to a massage therapist and “healer” Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila. The three accused have now been arrested.
We take a look at what unfolded in the Kerala village and other cases of cannibalism that have rocked India.
Human sacrifice and cannibalism in Kerala
Bhagaval Singh and Laila killed the two women as a “sacrifice” as Shafi told them that this would end their financial woes and bring them prosperity. While one victim was reported missing in June, the other disappeared in September.
The case only gets more gruesome from here on.
Chopped body parts of the victims were exhumed from the Singh and Laila’s house on Tuesday. Their corpses were reportedly mutilated.
Padmam was strangled and beheaded; her body was cut into 56 pieces by Shafi, the police said. The remains were kept in a bucket, reports NDTV. Roslyn was strangled allegedly by Laila and her breasts were cut off. According to investigations, one of the women was tortured with a knife.
Sources said that the prime accused Shafi told the couple that eating cooked human body parts would help them preserve their youth.
Police and locals at the site where the two women were allegedly murdered Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. PTI
Kochi city police commissioner CH Nagaraju said, “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.”
Investigations have revealed that Shafi contacted the women on social media and lured them to the couple’s house. He is “addicted to sexual perversion and delighted in cruelty”, Nagaraju said.
Sources privy to the probe said Laila seemed remorseless and still expects the “human sacrifice ritual” to make them wealthy soon.
The police were investigating the disappearance of Padmam when they discovered the killings.
Nithari killings and a self-proclaimed cannibal
A series of murders in 2005 and 2006 at a bungalow referred to as a “House of Horrors” in Nithari near Delhi sent shockwaves across the country.
Moninder Singh Pandher, the owner of the bungalow, and his house help Surinder Koli were accused in the case of serial kidnapping, murder, and rape. The matter came to light when two girls from Nithari village went missing and residents reported that their remains were in a municipal water tank behind the bungalow.
Koli, who was found guilty of killing several children and young women, said that his employer would bring prostitutes home and as he watched them and cooked meals for them, he was consumed by a powerful desire for sex and cutting up human bodies, according to a report in The Hindustan Times. As many as 19 girls were feared to have been raped and killed in the house where Koli worked.
He had confessed to having sex with his dead victims and also eating some of their body parts.
A special CBI court in Ghaziabad awarded the death penalty to Surinder Koli, the main accused in the Nithari serial killings. PTI
When the CBI filed a chargesheet in the case, Pandher was charged with indulging in prostitution, bribing police officials, and destruction of evidence of offences committed by Koli.
Koli was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for murdering 14-year-old Rimpa Halder in 2005 at the bungalow. He was set to be hanged but in September 2014 the SC said that every death-row convict has the “fundamental right” to appeal in an open court against the death penalty.
In May 2022, a special CBI court in Ghaziabad awarded the death penalty to Koli. The judge also awarded seven years’ imprisonment to his employer Pandher in the case, besides a fine of Rs 62,000 on Koli and Rs 4,000 on Pandher.
The ‘king’ who killed 15
An alleged cannibal, Raja Kolander killed more than 15 people, but his previous crimes came to light after the murder of a journalist in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. Born Ram Niranjan, he called himself Raja and is the subject of the Netflix docu-series Indian Predator.
On 14 December 2001, Dhirender Shah, a local scribe went missing, and after he did not return for two days the then Station House Officer of the Kydganj township, SN Tripathi, started investigating the case.
The team tracked down Singh’s mobile phone from which a call was made to a landline. It led them to a household in Prayagrag’s Chheoki neighbourhood where a woman named “Phoolan Devi” stayed with her husband Raja Kolander, who worked as a driver at a government ordinance factory.
The probe led the police to a farmhouse and Kolander confessed to killing the journalist. It was also revealed that he ran a gang which involved looting vehicles but this was just the tip of the iceberg. He killed the drivers of the stolen cars, then cut their bodies open, and cooked some of the parts.
A diary recovered from the farmhouse revealed that he would cook and eat the brains of his victims. He would also talk to the skulls which he kept as trophies.
Kolander was arrested in 2001 and in November 2012 was sentenced to life.A juvenile ‘cannibal’
In January 2017, a 16-year-old was accused of killing and cannibalising a nine-year-old in Ludhiana.
Police said that the suspect had confessed to having extracted his victim Deepu’s heart after strangling him to death and dumping it in a school compound. The teen also confessed that he drank blood spilt on the ground after killing the boy and ate flesh.
The accused lived close to Deepu’s house. The boy’s body was found cut into six pieces in a sack in the neighbourhood.
The investigating officer in the case told The Indian Express that the accused “liked eating raw meat”. “He also had craving for human flesh. He has confessed to drinking boy’s blood. He also said he was influenced by crime shows on television and watched them regularly,” the police said.
With inputs from agencies
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