The following article contains graphic descriptions of brutality, murder, and human sacrifice. Mature audiences only.
On October 12th, 2022, Indian police arrested three ‘occultists’ accused of carving up two innocent women. The killers comprised of a “well respected” medical practitioner, Bhagaval Singh, his wife Laila, and a fifty-two-year-old “sorcerer,” Mohammad Shafi.
Prey
Police claim that Bhagaval and his wife Laila were contacted in June of this year by a fifty-two-year-old “hardened criminal”, Mohammad Shafi, who masqueraded as an experienced sorcerer called “Sreedevi.”
Sreedevi had been messaging the married couple via Facebook for several months, filling their heads with lies that his “black magic” ritual could bring them financial freedom and wealth. If this premise sounds strange to you, just think of the millions of Westerners entranced by secrets of easy abundance; sorcery disguised as self help.
Of course, any good get-rich quick scheme wouldn’t work without a down payment, which is why Bhagaval and his wife paid the hefty toll of 1.5 Lakh (around $1,800 USD) to Shafi. Once their initial payment had been secured by the conman, it was nearly time to initiate the ritual.
All Shafi needed for this was a human sacrifice.
Lamb
Ms. Roselin was a lottery ticket vendor in her fifties working in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. Shafi chose the divorced woman because she had no close relatives, except for her young daughter, and the chance of a missing person's report being filed was rather slim.
Shafi lured in Roselin under the guise of working on a “film” that was being produced in the area. Seeing a promising opportunity, Roselin found herself at Bhagaval’s home, where she was overpowered by the three maniacs.
Roselin was tied to a bunk, “brutalised,” her breasts were cut off, and then she was hacked into five pieces.
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To complete the ritual, Mohammad Shafi instructed the couple to consume parts of Roselin’s flesh, which they did without question. In her statement to the police, Bhagaval Singh’s wife, Laila, said Shafi “persuaded them to eat a small portion of the sacrifice for the best results.”
Curse
With their sacrificial victim now slaughtered, Bhagaval and his wife were all too happy to start their new lives with the prosperity they thought they deserved. Perhaps, the couple thought, the ritual would be so effective that it would instantaneously sling them to a higher rung of the caste. They were dreamers and ready to catch the good fortune moving their way.
The fortunes never came.
To the Singhs, it wasn’t the fault of the black magic ritual; this would be too easy an explanation. Plus, they found it an appalling notion that they were bamboozled into butchering up an innocent woman for the sake of a fraudster; they weren’t fools after all.
It had to be something else; perhaps they have been “cursed” in a past life without realizing it. They confronted Mohammad Shafi with their suspicions and he readily agreed that, yes, a curse was blocking the flow of abundance; the mystic held out his hand for yet another — and larger — down payment. They would try the ritual one more time, but this time, the torture and murder had to be brutal enough to break through the curse.
Mohammad Shafi searched for his next victim.
False Profit
Mohammad Shafi goes by many names, depending on which scam he is conducting or which province he is evading the police. Shafi has built quite an extensive criminal record — ten counts over a fifteen-year period; each offense escalating in violence and depravity.
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In 2020, Shafi was arrested for raping a seventy-five-year-old woman, who he attacked with a knife repeatedly. Instead of rotting in prison for his crime, he was released on bail in August 2021, fled the city, adopted a new identity, and began planning his next scam.
Breaking The Curse
The next victim’s murder was “far more brutal” than the first, and fortunately — at least for future victims — she was captured by CCTV getting into the car with Mohammad Shafi. Armed with a missing persons report, police traced the car to the killing location, but were too late to stop the sacrifice.
Similar to the first time, Shafi found Padma, a fifty-two-year-old lottery ticket vendor, who accepted his offer of work in a film. Padma was lured to her murder on September 26th of this year.
“Once she was at Singh’s house, the three accused choked her with a plastic cord around her neck to make her unconscious. Shafi inserted a knife into Padma’s vagina and then he cut her throat. After that, they cut her into 56 pieces, put them into buckets, and buried her in a pit,” the police report said.
The fifty-six pieces that once made up Padma’s body were haphazardly thrown into three separate pits.
All three killers are in custody and Bhagaval and his wife Laila are still waiting for their fortunes to arrive; albeit behind rusted metal bars.
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