India’s deadliest Milkshake Murder | Desi Crime & True Crime India

In every Indian household, there is a sacred ritual: the morning chai, the breakfast served with love, and the ashirwad (blessing) taken before stepping out into the world. We are taught that home is the one place where the world cannot hurt us. But what happens when the very person meant to protect you becomes your greatest threat?

Tonight on Welted Marigold, host Ambica Uppal dives deep into the chilling case of Jayant Balabkar—a veteran Head Constable in Chandrapur who spent his life protecting the public, only to be betrayed by his own "pride and joy."

Nineteen-year-old Arya Balabkar didn’t just want her father out of the way so she could be with her lover, Ashish; she wanted his life, his salary, and his status. Utilizing her background in microbiology, Arya concocted a cold, calculated plan that turned a refreshing morning milkshake into a lethal weapon.

This episode explores:

• The "Compassionate Appointment" Loophole: How Arya used an Indian government provision to step into her father's police uniform just months after his "accidental" death.

• The Psychology of a Killer: A "Rotten Mango"-style deep dive into the mind of a daughter who posted romantic Bollywood reels and graduation photos while wearing the uniform of the man she murdered.

• The Ultimate Betrayal: How a secret shared between two lovers became a toxic liability, leading to a dramatic confession three years later.

If you love the storytelling of Rotten Mango and the cultural depth of Desi True Crime, this deep dive into the "Milkshake Murder" is a must-listen.

Subscribe to Welted Marigold for weekly episodes on the crimes that broke the fabric of the Indian family.

Keywords for Tagging/SEO:

• Primary: Desi True Crime, Indian Murder Mystery, Welted Marigold Podcast, Rotten Mango style, Indian Police Crimes.

• Secondary: Chandrapur Murder, Milkshake Murder Case, Female Killers, True Crime India, Ambica Uppal, Psychological Thriller, Forensic Failures.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In every Indian household there is a sacred ritual. It's the morning chai, the breakfast served with love, the ashirvad, blessings taken before stepping out into the world. We're taught from birth that home is the only place where the world cannot hurt us. Our parents are our Devta, our protectors, our gods. And for a father, his daughter is his jhan, his pride, his reason, his purpose for living. But what happens when that pride becomes a poison? Imagine Jayant Balavar, 45 years old, a veteran, head constable in Chandrapur. This is a man who spent his life protecting the public. He sees the worst of humanity. Thieves, rioters, cold-blooded murderers. He thought he knew what danger looked like. He thought danger was a man with a knife in a dark alley or a criminal resisting arrest. But he never imagined that danger could be 19 years old girl wearing a ponytail and holding a chilled glass of milkshake in his own kitchen. Tonight we are dissecting a case that didn't just break the law. It broke the very fabric of the Indian family. Welcome to Welted Marigold. I'm your storyteller Ambaka, and tonight we share the story of the milkshake murder. A story of a daughter's cold ambition, a lover's deadly assistance, and a secret that stayed buried under a police uniform for three long years. To understand the crime we have to understand Jant Palapar. Chandrapur is a city known for its heat, its coal mines. But with the police fraternity, Jant was known for his cool temper. He was disciplined, the kind of man who arrived at the station five minutes early and left ten minutes late. But at home, at home he was just a father. Like many Daisi dads, Jant was protective. Some might say overprotective. His daughter Arya was his world. He wanted her to be a success. He pushed her toward education, specifically microbiology. He wanted her to have a respectable life, away from the grit and grime of the streets he patrolled. But there was a friction growing in the Balavan household. You see, Arya wasn't the Sidi Sadi simpleton Jayant thought she was. She was in fact stubborn, impulsive, and she had fallen in love with a boy named Ashish Shedmaki. Now let's talk about Ashish. On paper he was, I guess, a suitable boy. He was a police constable, he had a government job, but Jayanth, with his 20 years of experience, saw right through Ashish. He saw a lack of discipline, he saw a streak of misconduct. He forbade the relationship. In a typical Daisy household, that's where the drama usually begins. Tears, hunger strikes, maybe a secret meeting at a park. But Arya wasn't interested in drama. She was interested in solutions. And she was interested in a permanent solution. April 25th, 2023. The day the world stopped. The morning of April 25th was stiflingly hot. Jant was preparing for his shift at the collectorate's administrative building. It was a high profile post requiring focus. Witnesses say Arya was unusually helpful that morning. She made breakfast. She was chatting and then she brought out the milkshake. It was cold, sweet and thick. Jaant, appreciative of the gesture on such a hot day, drank the whole thing. He patted Arya on the head, picked up his cap and left. Then by 11 AM, Jayant is at his post. Suddenly his vision blurs. His chest feels like it's being crushed by a ton of coal. He faints. The kiosk that followed was typical for a busy government building. People rushed forward. Pani Laub hai Pani Lau, bring water. Ambulance go phone Karo. Call the ambulance. He was rushed to the government medical hospital. The doctors worked on him for an hour. But Jayant was already gone. The initial diagnosis? Sudden cardiac arrest. Well in the 45 degrees heat of a Maharashtra summer, a 45-year-old man dropping dead of a heart attack isn't a crime scene really. It's a tragedy. The most haunting image of that day, Arya Balavar at the hospital. She wasn't just crying, she was screaming. She was the picture of a daughter whose world had been shattered. The police officers, Jayan's colleagues, were moved to tears. They looked at this poor orphan girl and made a vow, we will take care of Jayan's daughter. And that is where the real crime begins. In the aftermath of Jayan's death, the city of Chandrapur mourned a good cop, a nice guy. But while the pyre was still cooling, a very specific legal machinery began to turn on. In the Indian government sector, there is a provision called compassionate appointment. The logic is very beautiful. If a breadwinner dies in the service, the family shouldn't starve. A job is given to someone within the family. For Arya, this wasn't just a safety net, it was the prize. Think about the darkness of this for a second. Arya didn't just want her father out of the way so she could just date Ashish. She wanted his life, his salary, and his status. She was a student of microbiology. She knew exactly how the body would react to the toxins she and Ashish had sourced. She knew that in the sweltering heat of April, a heart attack would be the easiest cover story in the world. And it worked. The department, moved by her tears, fast-tracked her application. And within months, Arya Jen Balaver wasn't just a grieving daughter. She was a police constable in training. She was wearing the very uniform her father died in. Can you imagine the nurse? Standing in line for the morning drill, saluting the seniors who were her father's friends, all while knowing she was the reason her father wasn't standing there next to her. But Arya didn't have nerves. She had an ice, cold, heart, and ambition. Not long after Jant was gone, Arya and Ashish got married. On the surface, it looked like a match born of shared grief. Ashish too was a compassionate pointy. His father also had been a policeman who passed away. They were the police couple of Chandrapur. But here is where it gets chilling. If you looked at Arya's Instagram during 2024 and 2025, you wouldn't see a girl haunted by the death of her father. You would see a microbiologist turned cock, flexing her new life. She posted reels in her uniform, she posted romantic videos with Ashish set to trending Bollywood songs. She went on vacations, picnics, and weekend parties. She even used her father's name as a shield. Her bio read Arya Jay Palabad. It's a common practice in India to use father's name as a middle name, but for Arya, it was the ultimate camouflage. Every time someone called her name, they were unknowingly honoring the man she had murdered. But while Arya was ascending, Ashish was spiraling. You see, the perfect life they built on top of a grave was beginning to crack. Ashish wasn't like Arya. He didn't have her academic background or her cold discipline. He started getting into trouble at work. Indiscipline, misconduct. He was a loose canon. By late 2025, the department had had enough. Ashish Shaitmake, the man who helped murder a head constable to get a job, was fired from the force. You see, when two people commit a murder together, they aren't really bound by love. They're bound by leverage. As long as both are winning, the secret stays safe. But the moment one starts losing, the love turns into a liability. Arya was now a successful constable. She had finished her training, she had a steady paycheck and a bright future ahead of her. Ashish Ashish was now an unemployed ex-cop with a stain on his record. The power dynamic in the house shifted overnight. Arya, the girl who was once desperate to be with Ashish, now looked at him like a as if he was a loser. She was a cop. He was a nobody. Witnesses and neighbors started hearing the fights. They weren't just about money or chores, they were vicious fights. Arya allegedly started belittling him, telling him he was nothing without her. And Ashish, Ashish was sitting on a nuclear bomb of a secret. He started thinking, I killed for you. I risked the gallows for you. And now you are looking at me like I am trash? And the ego of a man can be a dangerous thing, but the ego of a rejected accomplice is lethal. Ashish realized that Arya was preparing to leave him. She was young, she was a policewoman, and she had her whole life ahead of her. He realized that once she left, she could easily pin everything on him if the truth ever came out. He decided that if he couldn't have the life they stole, then nobody could. March 2026. Ramnagar Police Station. Imagine the face of the duty officer when Ashi Shedmake walked in. He didn't look like a killer, he looked like a man who hadn't slept really well in almost a year. He sat down and didn't ask for a lawyer. He didn't ask for a glass of water, he just started talking. He told him about the 5000 paid to Monty. He told him about 13-year-old cousin used as a courier. And then he described the kitchen on the morning of April 25th, 2023. He described how Arya didn't hesitate, how she stirred the powder into the milk until it was perfectly all mixed and smooth. The police was horrified. These were Jayant's brothers in arms. They had comforted Arya at the funeral. They personally signed the papers for her job. They realized they hadn't just been fooled, they had been recruited into her game. Ashish's confession wasn't born out of guilt. Let's be very clear about that. If he felt guilty, he would have confessed in 2023 itself. He in fact confessed because he saw Arya finishing her training, looking radiant in her graduation photos, ready to start a life that didn't include him. He realized that the only way to keep Arya forever was to be locked in a prison cell next to him. Basically, in his mind, it was if I go down, he told the officers, she goes down with me. The timing of the arrest is actually the most cinematic and disturbing part of this entire saka. On March 24th, 2026, Arya Balabar posted a photo on her social media. She had just completed her formal police training. She was in full ceremonial uniform. She looked like the future of the Maharashtra police. The caption was about hard work and making her father proud. Only 72 hours later, the handcuffs were slapped onto those same wrists. On March 28th, the Ramnagar police moved in. They picked up Arya Ashish and Monty, the 13-year-old cousin, now 16, who was sent to a juvenile detention center. The city of Chandrapur was in shock. People who had lived next to Arya for three years couldn't wrap their heads around it. She was so polite, they said. She was a microbiologist and that was the key. Her education wasn't just a career path, it was her weapon. She knew that if the dosage was just right, it would trigger a physiological chain reaction that looked identical to a heart attack. She bet on the fact that the Indian forensic system is overworked and that no one would suspect a lardly, a darling daughter, and for thousand days she was right. So how did then the system miss this for thousand days? Jant was a policeman. When a policeman dies, the scrutiny is usually actually higher. A post mortem was conducted. But here is the reality of forensics in many parts of the world. If the initial PM shows cardiac failure and there are no external marks of struggle, the internal organs are often not preserved or analyzed with the level of detail needed to find anything else like rare toxins. If the police had preserved chain samples properly in 2023, the traces of the poison Monty supplied, you know that 13-year-old boy supplied would have been there. But because they trusted Arya's tears and it showed as a cardiac arrest, the forensics were lax. They gave her the benefit of the doubt that they wouldn't have given any other stranger. As of today, the trial is still ongoing. Arya and Ashish are behind bars waiting for the law to decide their fate. Monty is in custody. He was only 13 in 2023. But the real tragedy remains Jayant Pallavar. He died proud of his daughter. He died thinking he had raised a girl who would carry on his legacy in the police force. Every morning for three years, a girl wearing his badge walked the streets of Chandrapur, hiding the fact that she had poured his death into a glass. In the end, the truth didn't come out through a brilliant investigation or a high tech lab. It came out of something so toxic. It came out because the two people who killed for love supposedly ended up hating each other. This marks the end of this episode. Until the next one, stay kind, stay safe.