India, July 4 -- Once upon a time, in the parched lands of Jhansi-not far from where Rani Lakshmibai once rode into battle-rose another woman of grit, ambition, and a body count. Meet Pooja Jatav, the 29-year-old marital mercenary who has turned the sacred institution of marriage into a weapon of calculated destruction. If you ever thought husbands were the usual suspects in domestic violence cases, Pooja's tale will snatch that illusion from your naivety and crush it under her bloody heel.

It began innocently enough, or so the cliches go. Eleven years ago, young Pooja fell in love with Ramesh from Madhya Pradesh. Love bloomed. until it exploded into a quarrel, and bang!-Ramesh was shot. Not metaphorically. Bullet, hospital, case registe...