“They always seemed like a calm, mild-mannered couple. How could they have done this? They were most likely manipulated by that other man,” the residents in Elanthoor village near Kerala’s Thiruvalla repeat among themselves. They are in a desperate bid to find a semblance of reason behind the brutal twin murders that were quietly carried out under their noses. Most of them are still shaking with disbelief, grappling with the news that this seemingly gentle couple, with whom they have peacefully coexisted for years, had allegedly murdered and mutilated two women at their house as part of a human sacrifice ritual, seeking financial prosperity. “Who could have possibly imagined this?” a woman asks, staring at the police personnel who were exhuming the second body from the premises of her neighbour’s house on October 11.
The confusion is palpable. While the residents knew little to nothing about Mohammed Shafi, the alleged mastermind behind the incident who has several other cases including rape registered against him, Bhagaval Singh and Laila were no history-sheeters. “People in this area have never had any complaints about them. We were dismayed when the police came to their house, and we were actually sad when they were arrested. But when we finally came to know what they had done, something no human should or could ever dare to do, it left us all shocked to our core,” says Jose Thomas, the accused couple’s neighbour, who provided the police with the CCTV footage. The visuals provided the police the breakthrough they needed to crack the case.
As more gory details of the case came to light, with Bhagaval himself pointing the police to the spots where the two bodies were buried, the residents no longer had reason to believe that the couple was wrongly framed in the horrific case. Despite the stone-cold evidence, however, the residents struggle to wrap their heads around it all. “I have known Babu (as Bhagaval is referred to by those close to him) since I was a child. Over the years, I have seen him develop into a well-read, worldly person. He was a progressive man, a Left sympathiser. I find it hard to believe that all of it was just a garb for him to hide behind, and that the real Babu was easily manipulated into a web of cruel and regressive superstitions,” Sasipalan (name changed) tells TNM.
Hailing from a family of locally renowned Ayurveda practitioners referred to as the ‘Aanjilimoottil Vaidyanmar’ (medics of Aanjilimoodu), Bhagaval’s late father Vasu Vaidyar is still held in high regard in the region. Many residents have memories of consulting the famed Ayurvedic practitioner in their childhood. “Look at this mark,” Abraham who studied in the Elanthoor Government Higher Secondary School along with Bhagaval says, holding up his left hand. “This is from an injury I had when I was just about 10. Babu’s father had treated me then, and my hand was fixed in no time. Vasu Vaidyar’s father and brother were also famed Ayurveda practitioners.”
Bhagaval too is a known name in the field of Ayurveda, at least within the confines of their village, says 77-year-old Padmini (name changed), who lives a couple of doors down. “We all call him Babu, but Bhagaval Singh is his official name. Just go to the market and ask an autorickshaw driver to take you to Singh’s house, or to the vaidyar’s place, and they would know exactly who you are talking about. Everybody here knows him and his family,” she says.
According to Gopinathan, who studied with Bhagaval at school, Bhagaval married Laila after his first marriage ended in divorce. He is not very familiar with Laila, he says. “I only knew Laila as Babu’s wife, so I can’t comment on what might have driven her to this point. All I know is that he was married once before, and that relationship had ended in a divorce. He had a daughter from that marriage, as well as a son with Laila. Both of the children are working abroad now,” he says.
Padmini says Laila was close to Bhagaval’s first daughter. “Laila was as much a mother to Bhagaval’s daughter as to the son they had together. Both the children too are very close to each other. If you didn’t know, you couldn’t imagine that they came from different wombs,” she says.
Abraham recalls Bhagaval’s failed attempt to find employment in Saudi Arabia many years ago. “This was back in the early 1980s, around the time of the anti-Sikh riots. He had made it to the final stage of the visa approval process, but his application finally got rejected because of his surname ‘Singh’. He even submitted a certificate proving that he was from Kerala, but that didn’t help. So he started helping out his father with his Ayurvedic massages,” he recalls.
When Babu first started working with his father, he only performed relatively smaller remedies such as massages for hand and ankle sprains, says Abraham. “But soon he went on to build his skillset, before gradually taking over the responsibility from his father."
It was around this period that the Panchayat allotted the family an amount of Rs 5 lakh to set up a thirumal kendram (massage centre), Abraham says, pointing to the shed located right next to Bhagaval’s house. “The initial plan was to use this shed to make Ayurvedic concoctions, but that didn’t work out. They were still using the building for treatments,” he says.
Abraham is not familiar with Bhagaval’s wife Laila either. “I often spotted them together in the market, with Laila riding pillion on Bhagaval’s bike. But we only had a hi-bye relationship. It never went beyond that. I know she helped him out with his Ayurveda practice,” he says.
Soon after the news of the Elanthoor couple and their horrific crime hit social media on October 11, Tuesday, screenshots from Bhagaval’s Facebook profile had begun to go viral. People were just realising that one of those accused in the vicious human sacrifice case was a poet — a haiku poet to be precise. Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan, each poem consisting of only 17 syllables, confined to three lines of five, seven, and five.
The numerous Malayalam haiku poems that peppered Bhagaval’s Facebook profile had soon become a topic of heated debate in Kerala’s literary circles, with one of them — his latest — especially grabbing attention due to its dark undertones. “Ulayoothunnu, panikkathi koottundu, kuninja thanu,” the poem posted on October 6 went, invoking images of a fire pit, a knife, and a body bent over.
Though Bhagaval can hardly be called a well-known writer, he was still an active figure in Thiruvalla’s literary circles, says his childhood friend Gopinathan. “He is a degree holder and had a definite taste for the literary arts. He was an active participant in many of the programmes conducted by the Purogamana Kala Sahithya Sangham (Progressive Arts and Literary Organisation) here. He read a lot, and could talk with conviction on anything under the sun. This also includes his stance against superstitious beliefs, which is why none of us can still believe that he carried out human sacrifice rituals. Laila also never showed any inclination towards dark magic and such extreme superstitions. I strongly believe that he was caught in some kind of a trap,” he says.
Though torn on whether he was an official member of the party or not, no one in the Elanthoor region doubts that Bhagaval’s political sympathies lay with the ideologically progressive Communist Party of India (Marxist) — an alignment that exacerbates the irony of the situation for many observers. Some are of the opinion that he was a former office-bearer of the party, while others think he was simply a sympathiser. In a since-deleted Facebook post by the official handle of the CPI(M) Elanthoor Town Branch, dated May 25, 2015, Bhagaval had been referred to as a branch member of the party. All sides, however, agree that he had taken a step back from politics over the past few years, except for the occasional fund collection drives and party programmes.
In fact, many of the neighbours say that Bhagaval had come to their houses just last week, as part of a fund collection drive for the party. “I gave him money that day, and we exchanged pleasantries. He seemed as calm and collected as ever,” Abraham says. And when he finally came to hear of his former friend’s actions on Tuesday, the memory of that last visit only served to add to his shock, he says.
“For Bhagaval, party affiliations never stood in the way of friendships,” says PT Mathew, husband of panchayat president Mercy Mathew. A Congress partyman through and through, his own relationship with Bhagaval is testament to the fact, he says.
BJP mandalam office-bearer Vidyadirajan too tells TNM, “This is a horrific crime, but none of us think that Bhagaval Singh is the kind of man to voluntarily engage in such acts. We believe that he was trapped by a black magic racket. Our primary concern now should be to get hold of the members of the racket and find out if there are more victims. Otherwise, somewhere down the line, we may end up losing more people to such superstitious beliefs."
Several villagers are of the opinion that financial struggles may be the factor that pushed Bhagaval and Laila to such extremity. Gopinath however says that while the couple may have faced several financial roadblocks over the years, it is hard to believe that they were facing such an issue at this point in life.
“Bhagaval’s family had some ancestral wealth. Most of the land surrounding the area where his house currently stands belonged to his family. A large portion of it was divided among his siblings. In fact, the plot where Jose Thomas’s house is currently located belonged to Bhagaval’s sister. I am not sure exactly how many brothers and sisters he had, though I know they are a big family. But even if the division of land had left him with financial problems, the situation would have ideally gotten better by now. Both of their children are abroad and earning well. His daughter is a nurse in the Gulf. They are in a much better position,” he says.
On the ground surrounding the murder site though, rumours are rife that Shafi and Laila had together lured Bhagaval into the plot. According to police sources, Shafi had manipulated Bhagaval into allowing him to have sexual intercourse with Laila in front of him. The picture painted by gossip portrays Bhagaval as an innocent scapegoat, who was turned into a puppet by the other two accused who systematically brainwashed him into aiding the crime.
Padmini, however, would rather pay no heed to these rumours. “People will make up as many stories as they want. The time is ripe. It is better not to pay attention to any of them,” she says. She would prefer to believe that both Bhagaval and Laila had fallen into a trap laid by Shafi, who is a known offender. “But when we think of it, how can an educated person like Babu be so easily manipulated? Aren’t they perfectly capable of thinking over matters before making any decision?” she says.
Ask any person in the village and they will only have good things to say about both of them, she adds, “But who knew what was actually going on inside that house.”