Com Bala revealed The Statesman 27 Nov 2013 | | | | | | Big font Small font Glimpses of life within commune Paul Peachey London, 27 November The first images of the Maoist ideologue accused of keeping three women slaves for 30 years emerged last night from a 15-year-old television documentary that revealed a glimpse of what life was like within the left-wing commune. Aravindan Balakrishnan ~ known as Comrade Bala ~ was caught on camera attending an inquest into the death of one of his followers who mysteriously fell from a bathroom window of the house in Herne Hill, south London, where the group was living in 1997. Balakrishnan is shown being followed by a woman believed to be Josephine, a 57-year-old Irish woman who was rescued last month with two other women who had been at the commune for three decades. They are alleged to have suffered physical and mental abuse at the hands of Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife Chanda, 67, who were arrested in Brixton last week. At the 1997 inquest, a coroner criticised the collective over the death of Sian Davies, 44, and expressed doubts that she would have opened a window on a cold Christmas Eve night and fallen to the street below. She died from her injuries after spending seven months in hospital. Miss Davies, originally from Aberaeron, west Wales, was a member of the collective for 24 years after arriving in London to study at university. Her family say that members of the commune falsely claimed to be her next of kin and withheld news of her death from them. Miss Davies cousin, Eleri Morgan, said members of the group told the family she was in India and prevented her from being moved to the specialist spinal hospital, Stoke Mandeville. After the inquest, members of the commune reacted angrily when a television crew asked to speak to Mr Balakrishnan. “You are part of the fascist state,” said the woman identified as Josephine. “We dont want to talk to you.” She then retreated into the house with two older companions, one of whom is thought to be a 69-year-old Malaysian woman who was also released last month, footage released by ITV News showed. Ms Morgan said Sian visited her family only once while she was in the commune, and was accompanied at all times by two other group members. She said Josephine called her and asked to meet to talk about Sian after the inquest was over. “I told her in no uncertain terms that I didnt know how she could live with herself,” she told The Independent. New details about the lives of those inside the commune emerged yesterday as police confirmed that they had yet to interview Josephine or the other two captives ~ one of whom was named in reports as Rosie Davies, a 30-year-old Briton who spent her whole life with the group. It was unclear whether Sian Davies was her mother, and Ms Morgan said she had not been asked to take a DNA test to confirm the victims identity. Detectives have said they have the womans birth certificate. The Malaysian woman is reportedly called Aishah, and is thought to have moved to Britain in 1968 with her fiancé before falling under the influence of Balakrishnan. the independent
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 19:43:43 +0000
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