Traditional Ayurveda practitioner Bhagaval Singh was an active CPM worker and an efficient organiser in his political field. Earlier he was the Branch Secretary of the party for some time. At the moment he is reported to be the member of Local Committee, the party unit above the Branch and just below the Area Committee. He is also the Panchayath Committee President of KSKTU (Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union, the CPM-controlled organisation for agricultural labourers). He has been the CPM-controlled Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) agent in Booth 142 in all elections. He has been consistently following extremist communist stands.
CPM Pathanamthitta Area Committee Secretary Pradeepkumar told the media that Bhagaval Singh has been a CPM worker. He finds it difficult to believe that he implemented such brutal murders.
Local people confirm that Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila are active party workers. She was on the front row of the procession carried out in Elanthur to mourn the death of CPM leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
There were allegations that Bhagaval Singh was doing bootlegging under the cover of Ayurveda treatment. Later he turned an alcoholic, an addict. Then the local people took him to a de-addiction centre. She got married to Laila after this. It was a second marriage for both. Reports state that Laila’s first husband had drowned in the river. Bhagaval Singh had divorced the first wife, alleging that she was lunatic. His daughter from the first marriage is married off and lives abroad with the husband. His son from the second marriage is working abroad too.
Interestingly, CPM has not taken any organisational actions against the ‘comrade couple’.
There were reports that the couple had cooked the flesh of the slain women and ate it. Later on, they denied it.
