London: The Indian-origin head of an extremist Maoist sect, accused of enslaving three women in his home in London for 30 years, tried to convince his British followers he was Jesus Christ, a former activist has claimed.
Aravindan Balakrishnan, 73, known as Comrade Bala, is also accused of persuading his followers to hand over thousands of pounds for the revolutionary cause.
"He would say I am the Christ, follow me and people would. He was never violent, he was too self-controlled. But women abandoned their careers and their futures for him. They would have to put him and the collective before their families, Dudley Heslop, a community worker, told the Evening Standard.
The 59-year-old Heslop claims to have attended lectures by Balakrishnan's extreme left-wing group, Workers Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, for more than a year some four decades ago.
The details emerged as Scotland Yard began interviewing Balakrishnan's three victims yesterday, more than a month after they were freed from the south London commune.
Commander Steve Rodhouse, of the Metropolitan Police, said that the rescued women were still traumatised and officers faced a delicate task in interviewing them.
"The crucial issue for us is that clearly criminal offences have been committed. We know there has been physical violence, we know there has been emotional abuse. The true nature and frequency of that, we have yet to understand," he said.
