Three persons have been arrested by Kerala police in southern India on suspicion of killing two women as part of a suspected human sacrifice.
The suspects are Mohammed Shafi, a "healer" from the Idukki district, Bhagaval Singh, an ayurvedic "occult practitioner" and the former's wife Laila.
Police said that before killing the victims, the accused "severely tortured" them. The women were, allegedly, slain months apart, and their remains were discovered on Tuesday.
Authorities say they have confessed to the crime, and an investigation is under progress.
The shocking story has garnered national attention and stunned Keralans, one of India's most progressive states. A Cochin city (now Kochi) court ordered them to be held in judicial custody for three weeks on Wednesday.
Cochin Police Commissioner CH Nagaraju stated that the murders occurred over a four-month period and were considered to be part of a ritual performed for "financial benefits" He went on to say that the motivation for the murder was simply a "preliminary assumption" and that they were investigating based on the confessions.
According to police, the suspects lured the victims, who sold lottery tickets in Cochin, with the promise of money before beheading them and slicing their bodies into pieces.
Police have identified the victims as Padma and Rosli.
Padmam, 52, was from the neighboring Tamil Nadu state of Dharmapuram and lived in Cochin. Rosli, 49, was from the Thrissur district and lived in the Kalady satellite town.
On Tuesday, human remains thought to belong to the women were excavated close to Singh's home in the Pathanamthitta district.
The chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, stated that the crime had "shocked the human conscience" and that it was "beyond imagination in a state like Kerala" for someone to kidnap and kill someone for superstitious reasons in a state like Kerala.
In September, Padma's son filed a report alleging that his mother was missing.
Since February, Padma had been residing in a one-room home in Kochi.
"She lived alone but she would call me every night," her sister Palaniamma told the BBC.
So when Palaniamma did not hear from her sister for a few days, she decided to check on her.
"But when I went there [to the house] I found it locked," she said, adding that her sister's phone was also unreachable.
Padma's phone was tracked down to Pathanamthitta, roughly 113 kilometers (70 miles) from Kochi. They discovered that she had received multiple calls from one of the accused, Shafi.
They claim that Shafi's phone records proved that he had been in contact with Singh, who also lived in the same neighborhood.
In some parts of India, "Black magic" is still practiced; many believe the rituals can bring prosperity, help barren women deliver children, cure illnesses, and even increase rains.
