PETALING JAYA, Nov 28 — The world now knows who Aravindan Balakrishnan is.

The former high ranking Communist Party England (CPE) member, referred to as Comrade Bala and Chairman Ara, was captured on video by ITV News while attending the inquest into the death of Sian Davies in 1997. He is widely believed to be a Singaporean.

Also in the footage are Malaysian Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab and Belfast-born Josephine Herivel. 

The women were among the three rescued by police last month after they were allegedly kept as slaves in a house in Lambeth, London, for 30 years.

The other saved woman, Rosie Davies, is believed to be Sian’s daughter.

Sian had in 1996 fallen out of a bathroom window at a house where she lived with Balakrishnan and Pattni. She was left paralysed from neck down and died hardly a year later.

The video shows Balakrishnan walking ahead followed by Herivel and Siti Aishah as they head into a building. 

The video is then edited to a different location where Herivel and an unidentified woman, believed to be of Asian origin, tell reporters they need not speak to Balakrishnan.

“We don’t want to talk to you, okay,” Siti Aishah says as she closes the door.

Balakrishnan, who was suspended by CPE in 1974, keeps mum in the video.

Rosie (left) who was allegedly kept as a slave for three decades and Sian who lived with the Balakrishnans for some 20 years. — Picture courtesy of Daily Mail
Rosie (left) who was allegedly kept as a slave for three decades and Sian who lived with the Balakrishnans for some 20 years. — Picture courtesy of Daily Mail

Balakrishnan, 73, and his wife a Tanzanian of Indian descent Chanda Pattni, 67, were arrested last week after police rescued three women who were allegedly kept as slaves in a house in London.

Kamar Mautum, told UK’s Telegraph on Monday, she believed the 69-year-old Malaysian saved by police was her sister Siti Aishah. This was confirmed by the Inspector 

General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar yesterday (see accompanying story).

Kamar left for London, together with former student activist Hishamuddin Rais on Tuesday night, hoping to be reunited with her long lost sibling.

The family had not been in contact with Siti Aishah for more than 30 years after she left for London with her fiancee Prof Munir Omar in 1968. 

Siti Aishah — who hails from Jelebu, Negri Sembilan, and studied at Tunku Kursiah College in Seremban — was to further her studies in quantity surveying but was heavily influenced with the Maoist sect which led her to joining the New Malayan Youth leftist group. She ditched Munir and severed ties with her family who was against her political stand.

Her brother tried to track Siti Aishah down and sought the help of Hishamuddin but to no avail.