Post-mortem of victims likely to conclude today

Kottayam: The post-mortem of bodies of the two deceased women, which were exhumed on October 11, as part of an investigation into a gruesome human sacrifice case at Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta district, is likely to conclude on Thursday.

The bodies of the deceased women will be handed over to the relatives only after a detailed post-mortem and DNA test, hospital sources said.

Sources said the post-mortem in the two cases were complicated as the bodies have started decomposing.

Police have asked the police surgeon to provide a detailed report on the number of injuries on the body and the details on all internal organs.

The bodies, which were exhumed on October 11, were brought to Kottayam Medical College that night itself. The DNA test will be conducted at the laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram.

The women in the shocking human sacrifice case in Kerala had undergone gruesome tortures as the breasts of one of them had been chopped off and the body of the other was cut into 56 pieces by the accused, according to the police remand report filed before a local court here.

The court had remanded the prime accused Shafi (52), Bhagaval Singh (68), a massage therapist and his wife Laila (59) to 14-day judicial custody. "The accused conspired to conduct the human sacrifice with an intention to bring prosperity in the life of the second and third accused by pleasing the goddess in favour of Singh and his wife Laila," the remand report had said.

The chopped body parts of the deceased were exhumed from the premises of the couple's house at Elanthoor village in Pathanamthitta Wednesday.

The first woman went missing on September 26 and the probe led to Shafi. On further interrogating him, police found the trio had earlier murdered the second victim in a similar manner in June.