Kadyrov's Men 'Killed And Buried' 3 Chechens Seen In Viral Group Sex Video: Report

Three people, including a woman, have allegedly been killed and buried after a video of them engaging in group sex went viral in Russia's republic of Chechnya. The tightly-controlled and predominantly Muslim region is headed by Putin's strongman and former warlord Ramzan Kadyrov.

The three local residents went missing from the city of Grozny in mid-April, soon after the Chechen police detained them for questioning, reported Radio Free Europe, quoting its local wing Caucasus Realities.

The photos and videos of two men and two women taking part in group sex after consuming a "drug-like substance" went viral in Chechnya sometime in early April. It soon caught the attention of the republic's authorities, who issued orders to the law enforcement to detain those seen in the video. Nobody has heard from the three detainees since then. One of the women in the video was released as she was not a Chechen.

Sources within the law enforcement confirmed they were killed and buried, Caucasus Realities reported. The unnamed source didn't know how exactly the three residents died but their bodies were brought to a cemetery in the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in an ambulance, which was accompanied by a police car.

A resident of Vedeno district too confirmed to the news outlet that there were three fresh unmarked graves in the cemetery in the village, but they did not belong to locals. The news of their killings went viral on several Telegram channels on June 3.

The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechnya has refused to comment on the disappearance of the people. However, it said the "rumors" weren't true.

There are reports that extrajudicial torture and executions are rampant in the republic against those who engage in a lifestyle not approved by Kadyrovites. Apart from undertaking anti-gay purges, law enforcement has also reportedly set up secret prisons for gays in Chechnya. Many activists and victims have gone on record about how they were tortured there.

According to Human Rights Watch, though there were no overt indications that top Chechen authorities sanctioned anti-gay purges, the police officers involved felt at liberty to hold people in unlawful, incommunicado detention and to humiliate and torture them for days because of their presumed sexual orientation.