Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 16 When Kerala Police came searching for Bhagaval Singh, 68, and his wife Laila, 59, in Elanthoor, a sleepy village of Pathanamthitta district, the local people were in for a shock. The duo is very popular in the local community through their political activism and Bhagaval Singh being a popular traditional masseur with his father Vasu Vaidyar being a highly-respected person in the area.
The shock turned into a gory story of human sacrifice in which die-hard criminal Mohammed Shafi aka Rasheed, with more than 10 cases of rape, theft and assault against him, befriended the couple through social media and forced them to be part of a cruel, brutal human sacrifice of two women.
Police took into custody the three and on interrogation, found that two women Roslyn Vargheese, 49, and Padma, 52, were brutally killed in two incidents of human sacrifice. While Vargheese, a lottery seller, was missing from her home since June 8, Padma went missing on September 26 and it was a missing complaint filed by her sister Palani Ammal that led to the unravelling of the brutal murder and human sacrifice over money and wealth.
The sequence of events commenced after Shafi befriended Bhagaval Singh, a CPI-M party member and worker who is a traditional healer and therapist and a haiku poet who used to take classes in haiku. Shafi, got in touch with Bhagaval Singh under a pseudonym, Sridevi, and lured Singh and his wife Laila into his trap of raising wealth through occult practices and witchcraft.
Talking to , social activist and former journalist Roy Mathew said: "Kerala society is now in the grip of religion and people are doing anything and everything for money. The lure for easy money and comfortable living is the reason behind these religious beliefs... Religion is taking hold over the gullible people by offering heaven and a point has reached wherein we are hanging our heads in shame over human sacrifice."
A state that witnessed a renaissance with social reformers like Sree Narayana Guru, Chattambi Swamigal, and Mahatma Ayyankali had worked hard to bring up a revolutionary mindset among its people. This has led to the state turning into a progressive one with high health index, top-class education, and very low child mortality rate. However, all that has gone for a toss with this incident - and more taking place in many places of the state for long.
In Idukki district, more than 10 cases of sorcery and witchcraft were registered. Locals people protested in front of a sorcery centre "Vasanthi Madam" a couple of days before and the police arrested Shobhana, and her live in partner Unnikrishnan for reportedly practicing sorcery at that place.
In Kozhikode also, local people damaged the property of a sorcerer after the human sacrifice in Pathanamthitta came to fore.
Senior Congress leader and former minister Pandalam Sudhakaran told that "Elanthoor is a place near my hometown and this sleepy village was a blessed place as Mahatma Gandhiji had come there. Such a gory tale from that village.... I feel that the rot has set in society with people believing in sorcery to accumulate easy wealth."
"Regarding this I need to say that the Kerala Police was very active in the first phase of the investigation and has brought to book all three prime accused. However with the accused being aligned to CPI-M and Bhagval Singh being a local leader of the ruling CPI-M, there can be intervention and it has to be seen as to how things are moving ahead."
Interestingly, a Latin Catholic Bishop had once openly told the laity that purifying a church with the menstrual blood of a local woman would drive all the negative forces and bring prosperity to the church and the local people. The Bishop was later removed from the service due to his affair with a woman.
The Latin Catholic Church in Alapuzha is also mired in controversy over a prayer group, 'Kripasanam' functioning under the church. The prayer group that is in the name of Virgin Mary has claimed several supernatural powers. There were instances of a woman mixing pieces of written material on 'Kripasanam' with breakfast and feeding her son to bring him out of alcohol addiction.
Meanwhile, newspapers in the state are flooded with advertisements seeking a supernatural cure in the name of 'Arabic Tantric', Occult worship, 'Kuttichathan', Kripasanam, and whatnot.
It has to be seen whether the revulsion against witchcraft and occult worship in the Kerala society that has gripped it after the news of human sacrifice has come out will continue or will things will become the same after the initial furore is over.
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