by Warning: This story contains graphic details of a series of horrific crimes.
A “legend” in India is accused of murdering, torturing and later eating parts of two female police officers who they say they butchered to satisfy their own deranged sexual desires.
Muhammad Shafi, a convicted rapist who served time for sexually assaulting a 75-year-old woman. Bhagaval Sing, Haiku poet and massage parlor owner. and his wife Laila Singh, who helped run the operation, are accused of human sacrifice, torture, murder, dismemberment and partial consumption of two women in their 50s, according to Kerala police. They were brought in on Wednesday.
The trio may have killed others, police fear, but they are charged with the murders of Padmam and Rosly – identified only by unique names in Indian media. The alarm was reportedly raised by his sister Padmam, who told the police that the victim was last seen in Shafi’s car on September 26.
Shafi is believed to have been the couple’s sorcerer, and all three say he had sex with Laila Singh – usually in the presence of her husband.
Shafi is accused of Padmam’s murder, while Laila Singh is accused of Rosli’s murder and beheading. Her husband is accused of cutting off Rosly’s breast for consumption.
“It has now been established that he (Shafi) is a psychopath and a sexual pervert, and one who derives sexual pleasure and will go to any extent even to kill for it,” the Kerala police commissioner told India Times. He apparently lured the Singhs by advertising financial help on a fake Facebook site and a fictitious interest in Japanese poetry.
The murders, which allegedly took place on June 6 and September 26, form the basis of the case against the trio. According to local police investigators, Shafi led the Singhs to lure the victims – both lottery vendors – to his home, where they were murdered.
Laila Singh reportedly admitted to the police that she had eaten Rosly’s flesh with the promise of financial prosperity and that her husband had consumed Padmam’s genitalia to preserve his youth. After the two murders, Mrs Singh is said to have had sex with Shafi while Mr Singh was praying.
The dismembered body parts that had not been eaten were then hidden in a pit in the garden of the Singh home and were discovered after investigators excavated the area, police say.
“The murders were brutal, the women were killed within 24 hours of their disappearance,” Kochi city police commissioner CH Nagaraju, who led the initial investigation, told local media. “The manner of killing is indescribable.”
