Overview
- Police arrested 46-year-old Ram Sahay Jaiswal and have registered eight murder cases and one attempted-murder case after an investigation that local reports said culminated on Tuesday, June 23.
- Villagers filed a complaint on June 6 after a survivor, identified as Kartik, fell ill and named Jaiswal, prompting police to exhume seven bodies beginning June 13 and preserve viscera and DNA for testing in Raipur.
- Investigators say Jaiswal procured borax (suhaga) as rat poison, tested it first on a dog, then mixed it into alcohol he served to targets who died within days between February 6 and May 14.
- Police say he confessed to selecting victims over a string of local disputes including loans, land fights, insults and accusations of witchcraft, and that he avoided suspicion by helping families and attending funerals.
- Forensic laboratory results to confirm borax as the cause of death are still awaited and authorities say further inquiry will examine supply of the substance and move from isolated deaths to a linked serial-poisoning case.