In June 2026, Purana Kharve woke up to discover that 8 murders had been committed over the past 4 months, after two decades of no heinous crime in the village. It shocked the 130-140 families that live here, by the banks of the Mahanadi river, in Chhattisgarh’s Balodabazar-Bhatapara district.The Kasdol police found that 46-year-old Ram Sahay Jaiswal, a shopkeeper, had allegedly poisoned 8 men. He had served all his victims alcohol laced with poison. Ram Sahay, now arrested and in judicial custody, says he had planned to kill a few more, found investigators. “For most in the village, he was a frail, meek figure. That helped him avoid suspicion for long. He was a friendly drinking partner for his victims and a socially active family man to boot,” says Kasdol’s sub-divisional police officer Kaushal Kishore Wasnik of the 5-foot-2-inch tall Ram Sahay, who weighs around 50 kg. Wasnik says that masked behind that disposition were “deep insecurities, an inferiority complex, a cynical and suspicious nature,” added to which were life’s circumstances: mounting debt, a failing business, caste dynamics, and insults he endured daily. All this had fuelled revenge against the victims.
Accused Ram Sahay Jaiswal.
