Kerala Human Sacrifice case: SIT collected DNA samples of accused

Kochi (Kerala) [India], October 18 : Special Investigation Team, Kerala on Monday conducted a potency test and collected DNA samples of three persons accused of killing two women citing Human Sacrifice rituals.
"The accused identified as Muhammed Shafi, Bhagaval Singh and Laila were taken to the Ernakulam Medical College by the special investigation team, Kerala to collect the samples. The police also conducted the potency test of the accused here", officials said.
After two hours of medical examinations, the police collected evidence from Muhammed Shafi, the prime accused in the case.
During interrogation, Police found that 39 grams of gold belonging to Padma, the victim, were mortgaged by Shafi for Rs 1 lakhs out of which Rs 40,000 Shafi gave to his wife.
The Police will continue the evidence collection and interrogation of the accused on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Kochi Court sent all three accused to 12-days of police custody.
Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju confirmed that the three were arrested on October 11.
As per the police remand report, the husband-wife pair of Bhagaval Singh and Laila conspired with the "prime accused" Muhammed Shafi to commit the crimes.
The police remand report of the accused mentions the shocking "human sacrifices" were suspected to have been committed as part of a ritual to obtain financial benefits.
The remains of the two deceased women-identified as Padma and Roslin- were exhumed later from pits near the residence of Singh and Laila in the Pathanamthitta district.
According to police, the accused allegedly lured the victims with the promise of money. The remand report stated that the accused allegedly chopped up the bodies of the victims before burying them.
On September 26, Shafi approached the 52-year-old Padma, who used to sell lottery tickets at Kochi and lured her by offering Rs 15,000 for sex work, the police remand report read.
"Then she agreed and went with Shafi to the home of Bhagaval Singh and Laila in the Pathanamthitta district. There, the accused strangled her with a plastic cord around her neck to make her unconscious. After that, Shafi mutilated Padma's private parts using a knife and slit her throat. After that, they chopped her into 56 pieces and put the mutilated body parts into buckets and buried them in a pit," the report detailed.
Police said that it is investigating the possibility of cannibalism that the accused possibly ate the flesh of the victims.
Kochi Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju addressing a press conference told reporters that Shafi, the main accused, was a pervert and has a criminal past.