Hazaribagh, May 4: A BEd student was hacked to death with a sickle in front of her college in Ramgarh around noon today, with police suspecting unrequited love to be the trigger behind the vengeful attack, which is grimly reminiscent of a campus murder in Ranchi five years ago.

Sonali Tuddu (30), married to a CCL employee's jobless son and mother of a two-year-old girl, was a resident of Jarhabeda village in Mahuatand, Bokaro, which borders Ramgarh.

She was a student of the 2015-17 batch at Maharshi Paramhans College of Education, situated a stone's throw from the Ramgarh district collectorate in Kothar and 50km from the state capital.

Eyewitnesses - a dozen-odd labourers who didn't rush to her rescue - later told police that a man on a bike rained 15-20 blows of a sickle on her neck, hands and waist till Sonali collapsed, her right palm severed. The lone college gatekeeper and other students were all inside the campus. Sonali bled to death.

Police are looking for one Sukesh Mandal, a native of Dumka's Jhumarbag village, where Sonali's parents live, based on the statement of her husband Chittaranjan Tuddu.

According to sources, Sonali reached college as usual in the morning riding pillion for 12km from home on her brother-in-law's bike.

During recess, around 11.30am, she stepped out of her college, barely 500 metres from the bustling collectorate, apparently to get some notes photocopied.

As soon as she came out of the main gate, a man ran towards her with his sickle. He struck her repeatedly till she fell down. He then mounted his bike and disappeared into a forested patch behind the college.

Subdivisional police officer, Ramgarh, Deepak Kumar said passers-by gave a chase, but the man escaped. "He, however, left the murder weapon behind, which has been seized. The woman's husband has named a suspect who had been stalking her for the past few days. We are not ruling out a spurned love angle and are looking for one Sukesh Mandal," the officer said.

Ramgarh SP M. Tamilvanan added a twist to the tale, saying Sonali might have received a call from Sukesh asking her to meet him urgently. "It is a matter of investigation why she stepped out of the campus. The photocopy shop was on the right and she went left. We are working on the possibility of a call from a man she knew," the SP said.

Police have launched a manhunt across Ramgarh and sealed the district's border with Bokaro. The body has been sent to Hazaribagh Sadar Hospital for post-mortem.

Maharshi Paramhans College of Education is recognised by the National College of Teachers' Education and affiliated to Vinoba Bhave University in Hazaribagh. Besides pursuing her BEd, Sonali was also an activist by nature. She had tried her luck for the mukhiya's post from Jarhabeda in the last panchayat polls, but was defeated.

On April 27, 2011, 19-year-old Khusboo Kumari was decapitated with a khukuri by her spurned lover Bijendra Prasad (24) on St Xavier's College campus in Ranchi, where she was appearing for her intermediate exam. Jamshedpur engineering student Bijendra was later arrested and convicted.