The three accused in the Kerala ‘narabali’(human sacrifice)  case have been sent to 12 days  police custody.

Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Ernakulum on Thursday sent the three accused, Bhagaval Singh, his wife Laila, and Muhammed Shafi alias Rashid, to police custody till 24 October.

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Earlier on Wednesday, the Court remanded all the three accused to judicial custody till 26 October. The accused, Muhammed Shafi and Bhagaval Singh, were sent to Kakkanad district jail while Laila was shifted to women’s prison in Kochi.

In an application filed before the court for the custody of the accused, the police said the accused need to be interrogated further to know whether there are more victims of this horrific crime. It also said that the accused need to be taken to various places in Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts as part of collecting evidence.

Two women, Padma,52, and Rosily,50, were abducted, beheaded and buried as part of a suspected witchcraft ritual to get financial prosperity to a family at Elanthoor in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district.

The shocking incident of human sacrifice unfolded after an investigation started on 27 September on a complaint that a woman from Kadavanthra in Ernakulam was missing. In a detailed investigation on the missing complaint, the police found that two women were allegedly abducted, beheaded and buried as part of a suspected ‘witchcraft ritual’ to gain financial prosperity for a family at Elanthoor near Thiruvalla in Kerala’s  Pathanamthitta district.

The police, on Tuesday, arrested Bhagaval Singh, an ayurvedic healer at Elanthoor, his wife Laila and sorcerer Mohammed Shafi alias Rashid, a resident of Gandhi Nagar in Kochi in connection with the alleged  gory ritual of’ human sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Bhagval Singh and his wife Laila, the accused in the case on Thursday denied cannibalism allegation against them, when they were taken to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Ernakulam.

“No, we have not eaten the flesh,” Laila, the third accused in the case, told reporters outside the Kakkanad District Jail when she and her husband Bhagaval Singh, the second accused, were taken to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.

In this connection, it has been suspected that the main accused in the case, Mohammed Shafi alias Rashid, has plans to target Bhagval Singh next. The police suspect that Shafi and Laila conspired to kill Bhagval Singh to live together.