Jharkhand teacher shoots dead 2 colleagues over love affair

A teacher allegedly shot dead two colleagues at a government school in Jharkhand's Godda district over a "love affair", before turning the gun on himself and suffering serious injuries, the police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place at Chatra Upgraded School in Poraiyahat area, around 300 km from Ranchi, during school hours around 11 am, a senior police officer said.

Godda superintendent of police Nathu Singh Meena told PTI, "The bodies of two teachers, including a woman, were found lying in a pool of blood in a room at the school, while the accused teacher was also found seriously injured."

As students and teachers of the school heard the gunshots, they rushed to the room but found it was locked from inside, following which they informed the police, the SP said.

"The police reached the spot and broke open the door but by then both the teachers, who were shot in their heads, had died. The accused teacher tried to die by suicide by shooting himself on the right side of his head," Meena said.

"Prima facie, it seems to be a case of a love affair. According to villagers and school students, both the male teachers had alleged romantic relationships with the woman teacher," the officer said.

The deceased were identified as Sujata Mishra (35), who was a resident of Poraiyahat, and Adarsh Singh (40), who hailed from Chandoli in Uttar Pradesh, while the injured teacher was identified as Ravi Ranjan (42), a resident of Poraiyahat Main Market, another police officer said.

He said the accused teacher shot three bullets at Singh and one bullet at Mishra.

Two country-made pistols were seized from the place of occurrence but only one pistol was used in the shooting, he said.

The injured teacher was admitted to Godda's Sadar hospital in a serious condition.