Kerala Human Sacrifice Case: Allegations of organ mafia unfounded, says Kochi Commissioner

Oct 18, 2022

Kochi (Kerala) [India], October 18 : Kochi Police on Tuesday said that there is no organ mafia behind the murder in the killing of two women for Human Sacrifice rituals.
Kochi City Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju said, "Allegations of organ mafia behind the murder are unfounded. Organ transplantation is not possible in unsanitary conditions. If you think in common sense it will not work. It is suspected that the main accused Muhammed Shafi has misled the co-accused in this regard."
He further said that there is crucial scientific and technical evidence against the accused.
"There is no indication that there are more victims. Missing cases are being investigated. So far no evidence has been found about the link between missing cases and human sacrifice cases. Several phones have been seized from the accused. Muhammed Shafi, who is the main accused mutilated the bodies. It is done in the butcher's style. Evidence collection will continue," Kochi Commissioner said.
Meanwhile, Kochi DCP S Sasidharan said that the investigation is in process and lot of scientific evidence against the accused.
"There is no evidence that the main accused, Muhammed Shafi victimized more people regarding human sacrifice rituals. The investigation is in progress. There is a lot of scientific evidence against the accused. An investigation is underway into the statements that the victim woman Padma's phone was destroyed. DNA samples of victim Padma's relatives were collected. This is for the conclusive evidence," DCP said.
Earlier on Monday, the Special Investigation Team, Kerala conducted a potency test and collected DNA samples of three accused persons.
"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.
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.