The couple who allegedly held three women for more than 30 years were leaders of an extremist Maoist collective, it has been claimed.
A senior council source confirmed that Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda were arrested last week by police amid allegations that they held three women for more than 30 years.
The alleged victims – a 30-year-old Briton, a 57-year-old Irishwoman and a 69-year-old Malaysian – are believed to have suffered years of “physical and mental abuse” at the hands of the pair.
House-to-house inquiries have been carried out in Brixton, London, where the three women were found, and police have confirmed that there are ongoing inquiries relating to a total of 13 addresses, all in the capital, linked to the couple.
The couple, aged 73 and 67, are believed to have been well-known to the police in the 1970s after setting up a communist squat, the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, in Brixton in 1976.
Balakrishnan, who was known as Comrade Bala, was a former member of the national executive committee of the Communist party of England (Marxist-Leninist) but documents show he was suspended in 1974 for pursuing “conspiratorial and splittist activities”.
A source at Lambeth Council said the couple were believed to have been in the property for around 10 years after moving there from a council property.
Concerns had previously been raised with police about the education of the youngest woman.
Scotland Yard would not comment on the claims, but previously said two of the victims met the male suspect through a “shared political ideology”, living with him at an address that was effectively called a “collective”.
Speaking earlier, Metropolitan Police commander Steve Rodhouse said: “The people involved, the nature of that collective and how it operated is all subject to our investigation.”
The couple, who are of Indian and Tanzanian origin, have been released on bail until January.