Odisha Lecturer Sentenced To Life For Killing Two With Parcel Bomb Disguised As Wedding Gift
An Odisha lecturer killed a groom and his grandmother with a parcel bomb disguised as a wedding gift. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated crime.
Bhubaneswar: Today, On May 28, An Odisha court has sentenced an English lecturer to life imprisonment for planning and executing a parcel bomb blast that tragically killed a newlywed software engineer and his grandmother, while severely injuring his wife in 2018.
This shocking incident took place in Patnagarh town of Bolangir district and shook the entire state.
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The parcel, which was sent as a wedding gift from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, exploded just five days after the wedding of 26-year-old Soumya Sekhar Sahu and his 22-year-old wife Reema (also reported as Seema in some sources), on February 23, 2018.
When Soumya opened the gift at his home, the bomb went off, killing him and his 85-year-old grandmother Jemamani Sahu. His wife was critically injured and had to be hospitalised for more than a month.
The man behind the gruesome attack was Punjilal Meher, a lecturer at Jyoti Vikas College in Patnagarh. The investigation revealed that he had deep professional jealousy and personal enmity towards the groom’s mother, Sanjukta Sahu, who had replaced him as principal of the same college in 2014.
Meher had been principal since 2009, and after being replaced by Sanjukta, he became increasingly bitter and envious. According to the police, this deep grudge led him to take such a drastic and cruel step.
“The parcel, delivered by Sky King Courier from Raipur, detonated when Soumya pulled a thread, causing extensive damage to the house, including cracked walls and shattered windows.
While Jemamani died en route to the hospital, Soumya succumbed to his injuries at V.S.S. Medical College and Hospital, Burla,” said Rabindra Sahu, the father of the victim.
The case was investigated by the Odisha Crime Branch, which took over the matter on March 23, 2018, following a request from the bride’s family and the intervention of the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Meher was arrested in April 2018 and has been in judicial custody at Patnagarh sub-jail since then.
According to the investigation, Meher had watched bomb-making tutorials on YouTube, read manuals online, and later deleted his browser history to cover his tracks.
He purchased firecrackers during Diwali 2017 and started conducting small experiments using the chemicals inside. He later used this knowledge to create the fatal bomb by packing the firecracker powder into decorative LED lights.
What shocked investigators even more was the detailed planning Meher did to avoid suspicion. On the day he travelled to Raipur to send the bomb disguised as a wedding gift, he attended his class, marked attendance, and then quietly boarded a train without a ticket.
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He visited several courier services using rickshaws and tuk-tuks, before finally sending the parcel under the fake name “SK Sharma”, describing its contents as “gift articles, sweets.” To build an alibi, he also left his phone at home.
A breakthrough in the investigation came when an anonymous letter was sent to the Superintendent of Police in Balangir, trying to mislead the investigation.
The letter claimed the parcel was sent by someone named “SK Sinha,” and that three men were involved due to a “betrayal and financial dispute.”
It advised the police not to harass innocent people. However, Sanjukta Sahu noticed similarities between the writing style in the letter and Meher’s usual phrases.
He often used the phrase “completing the project,” which also appeared in the letter. This crucial clue helped police confirm his involvement.
Adding to the shock was the fact that Meher had attended both the wedding and the funeral, trying to blend in and avoid suspicion.
The Additional District Judge (ADJ) of Patnagarh, Sonali Patnaik, termed the crime as “heinous” and “premeditated.”
The court found Meher guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substances Act.
He was awarded life imprisonment under two sections, 10 years under two other charges, and 7 years under another, with all sentences to run concurrently. In addition, the court imposed a fine of Rs 1.70 lakh on the convict.
Government counsel Chittaranjan Kanungo said,
“Our submission was to treat it as a rarest of rare cases. However, the court did not observe it as a rarest of rare cases because all heinous crime cases cannot be treated like that.”
He added,
“The quantum of punishment pronounced by the court is very encouraging. It will give a positive message to the society at large.”
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“This verdict ensures that he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life,” Kanungo told reporters outside the courtroom.
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