Cult leader who held Malaysian woman used sexual degradation against followers, UK court told
The leader of a communist cult in south London, who imprisoned a Malaysian woman for more than 30 years, also did the same to his own daughter, Southwark Crown court heard on Thursday.
Reuters reported that Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, used fear, sexual degradation, physical and mental violence against followers and turned the communist teachings into his own personal cult.
The report said even his own daughter, who was born to one of the women in the collective, was bullied, beaten and barely allowed to leave the house or see a doctor.
The daughter escaped when she was 30 and now suffering from diabetes, the court heard.
The Malaysian woman, Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab, then 69, made headlines in 2013 after she was “freed” from captivity.
She was one of three women believed to be have been held for over 30 years by Balakrishnan and his partner Chanda Pattni, a Tanzanian national of Indian descent.
It was reported that Siti Aishah, of Jelebu, Negri Sembilan had won a Commonwealth scholarship to London in the late 1960s but cut off contact with her family after coming under Balakrisnan’s influence.
Meanwhile, Reuters said Balakrishnan denied 16 charges of cruelty to a child, false imprisonment, indecent assault, rape and assault.
"This case concerns the brutal and calculated manipulation by one man to subjugate women under his control," it quoted prosecutor Rosina Cottage as saying.
The court also heard that in the 1970s, Balakrishnan was head of a communist group known as the Workers' League in south London.
Reuters reported Cottage as saying that the man made himself the party secretary and the collective's members were only allowed to recognise his authority and Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.
Over time, the report said the group's numbers waned, the men left and the Communist commune evolved into "a cult of Bala", the prosecutor told the court.
"One was his wife Chandra, but she and the others had all been so dominated and brainwashed to the extent that they believed that he was all powerful and all-seeing." she told the jury. – November 12, 2015.
