Wedding Gift Blast: English Lecturer Sent Parcel Bomb to Take Revenge on Groom’s Mother, Says Chargesheet

Bhubaneswar: The crime branch of Odisha police has submitted in court the preliminary charge sheet in the sensational Patnagarh wedding gift blast in which two persons, including the groom were killed on February 23.

The 300-page charge sheet has been submitted at the sub-divisional judicial magistrate court at Patnagarh in Bolangir district on Monday, ADG, Crime Branch, S K Upadhay told reporters here on Tuesday.

The blast had taken place when the the groom opened a gift pack and he was among the two who were killed in it.

Following a request by the new bride Reema Sahu and her family, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ordered the crime branch to probe into the incident.

The charge sheet has accused Punjilal Meher, an English lecturer at Jyoti Vikas College where the victim Soumya Sekhar's mother Sanjukta Sahu is the principal.

The investigating agency has said that revenge was the motive behind the crime.

It is alleged that Meher had sent the parcel bomb to the house of Sanjukta Sahu to eliminate her and the family members. However, Sahu's son Soumya Sekhar, who was married four days ago, and her mother-in-law Jemamani, died in the blast.

Reema too had sustained burn injuries in the blast. The crime branch has included statement of 72 witnesses and eyewitnesses, said government pleader Basudev Padhi.

However, as the investigators could not arrange three principal witnesses and the two forensic reports it has appealed to the court to keep the case open.

The 72 witnesses include Rabindra Kumar Sahu and Sanjukta Sahu, parents of late Soumya Sekhar Sahu, and 12 lecturers and employees of the Jyoti Bikash College, Bhainsa.

The crime branch also mentioned the list of the seized items, including the letter sent by Meher to the Balangir SP, the receipt book of the vehicle parking stand at Kantabanjhi railway station, three mobile phones, pen drive, external hard disk and a CCTV hard disk of the DTDC courier in Raipur.

The investigating agency informed the court that it will soon visit Raipur in Chhattishgarh to trace the three prime witnesses, an auto-rickshaw driver and two rickshaw-pullers with whom Meher had gone to courier agencies on

February 16 to send the parcel bomb.

The crime branch took over the investigation on March 23 and arrested Meher on April 25. He was arrested on May 8 and is currently lodged in the Patnagarh sub-jail.