Railway Station Romance Ends in Giridih Murder

A love story that began at a railway station has ended in a gruesome murder in Giridih district of Jharkhand. Police say a married man, with the help of his wife, killed his girlfriend after she pressed him for money, and then tried to disguise the crime as an accident.

The accused, Vinod Mandal, and his wife, Savita Devi, have been arrested. Police have also recovered the Pulsar bike used in the crime, a mobile phone, a sack and other items from them, based on their statements.

The victim's body was found on September 20 along a railway track near Chichaki station, which falls under the Sariya police station limits. The initial report was registered as a zero FIR at Gomo railway police station, and the case was then moved to Bagodar police station. The Giridih SP later set up an SIT, which took up the investigation.

The team, relying on technical analysis and evidence from the scene, identified the victim as Laxmi Kumari, a resident of Sariya. Investigators discovered that she had been in a romantic relationship with Vinod Mandal for five years.

Vinod worked on a contract at Chichaki railway station, and this is where their relationship started. He had been paying for Laxmi's daily expenses and her education. She was pursuing a postgraduate degree and hoped to get admission to a university in Andhra Pradesh, which required Rs 1.5 lakh. Police say she kept pressuring Vinod to arrange the money.

Allegedly tired of the endless demands, Vinod planned to remove her from his life. On September 19, he invited her to meet and took her by bike to a secluded room, where he strangled her that night. Police say he then took his wife Savita's help to put the body in a sack and throw it onto the railway track, hoping the death would look like an accident and not a murder.