Superstition is a bane; stiff measures needed to eradicate the menace

WHERE is Kerala, which claims to have the highest literacy rate in India, heading? Is the state mired in superstition?

Jaw-dropping incidents like sorcery, human sacrifice and cannibalism do happen in a civilized society like Kerala's are beyond the common man's perception.

When the Kadavanthra police station in Kochi city, on September 27, received a complaint from a woman about her 52-year-old sister, Padmam, having gone missing a day before, it appeared to be a routine case. The police tried to reach Padmam, a resident of Kochi’s Elamkulam locality, on her mobile phone but it was switched off.

Padmam, originally from Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, had been living in Kochi for the past 15 years and sold lottery tickets for a living.

The police complaint was filed by her sister Palaniamma after she and Padmam’s two sons found her missing and inaccessible on her mobile phone. The subsequent investigation gradually blew the lid off what police say is a gruesome tale of ‘human sacrifice’ of two women - Padmam and 50-year-old Rosily - committed for ‘financial prosperity’.

The police have arrested three suspects: Bhagaval Singh, an ayurvedic healer; his wife Laila; and Mohammed Shafi alias Rasheed, an eatery owner. A court in Kochi, on October 12, sent the three to judicial custody for two weeks.

Laila testified the gruesome details of the killing wherein the flesh of the victims was eaten after the ‘human sacrifice’ act as part of black magic. The flesh of one of the victim’s front rib had been cut off.

The National Human Rights Commission says “it has observed that such incidents cannot be expected in a civilized society where a human being is killed by another in the name of ritual without any fear of law. The Right to Life of both the victims has been grossly violated.”

Experts, as reported by various media, say that such evils were promoted due to the pursuit of happiness, pleasure and spirituality based on superstitions and supernatural beliefs, a lack of efforts from authorities to send strong messages against superstitions through awareness programmes and laws, and the availability of uncensored digital platforms.

  A Latin Catholic Bishop had once openly told the laity that purifying a church with the menstrual blood of a local woman would drive all the negative forces and bring prosperity to the church and the local people. The bishop was later removed from the service due to his affair with a woman.

 The Latin Catholic Church in Alapuzha is also mired in controversy over a prayer group functioning under the church. The group, in the name of Virgin Mary, has claimed several supernatural powers. There were instances of a woman mixing pieces of its publication 'Krupasanam' with breakfast and feeding her son to bring him out of alcohol addiction.

Will more skeletons tumble out of the cupboard?

The police have decided to re-investigate women missing cases reported in Pathanamthitta district in the background of the double murder - human sacrifice case in Elanthoor.

As many as 12 women have reportedly gone missing from the district over the past five years.

Fourteen have gone missing from Ernakulam district over the past 5 years. The police have already started a detailed re-probe into these missing cases.

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, out of the six human sacrifice cases reported in the country in 2021, two were in Kerala and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. A 6-year-old boy was hacked to death by his mother purportedly as a human sacrifice in Palakkad district last year.

The Kerala Law Reforms Commission had earlier submitted to the government a draft legislation against black magic and sorcery which, if enacted, will bring ill luck to exorcists and godmen in all religions who perform inhuman acts in the state. It moots banning evil acts and inhuman practices prevailing in major religions.

The draft legislation, titled ‘The Kerala Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices, Sorcery and Black Magic Bill’, spares most of the “non-harmful” religious practices, and attempts to curb evil acts causing physical harm and mental agony. The draft was submitted in October 2021.

Hope a stringent law will be enacted soon to curb the menace.