Valentine’s Week turned deadly in Ranchi’s Tamad region as a jilted lover took extreme measures to prevent her paramour’s wedding. Geeta Devi, 35, could not stomach the thought of her three-year fling with cousin devar Shankar Nayak ending in matrimony with another woman. In a fit of rage, she orchestrated his murder by spiking his tea with poison.
The affair began innocently enough after Shankar’s parents died, with Geeta managing his household. Proximity bred intimacy, but Shankar’s choice to move on sparked deadly jealousy. Teaming up with husband Baldev Machhua, Geeta invited Shankar over for tea laced with lethal toxin.
The young man fought for life in Jamshedpur’s medical facility but ultimately lost the battle. Shankar’s brother Sukra filed a police complaint, leading to rapid arrests of Geeta, Baldev, and their underage daughter based on forensic and digital clues.
Strikingly, this is the second such atrocity in 48 hours. In nearby Sonahatu, 25-year-old Harihar Mahato met a barbaric end—his head and private parts severed by lover Sulochana and her spouse, body discarded near a river. These back-to-back killings highlight a disturbing trend of passion-turned-poison in Jharkhand’s villages, challenging law enforcement to curb extramarital violence.