Odisha parcel bomb case: Lecturer gets life for wedding blast killings

Dubai: Seven years after a gruesome parcel bomb explosion killed a newlywed software engineer and his great-aunt, a court in Odisha has sentenced the lone accused, Punjilal Meher, to life imprisonment.

The additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) court in Patnagarh, Bolangir district, found Meher guilty of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Explosive Substances Act.

The former college lecturer was also fined a cumulative amount of Rs170,000.

The case, dubbed India’s first parcel bomb killing, stunned the nation in February 2018.

Just five days after their wedding, 26-year-old Soumya Sekhar Sahu and his 85-year-old great-aunt, Jemamani Sahu, were killed when a parcel addressed to the couple exploded in their Patnagarh home.

Soumya’s wife, Reema, 22, sustained severe injuries in the blast.

The parcel, gift-wrapped and sent from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, had arrived as a wedding gift. When Soumya opened it, the hidden bomb detonated.

Following a painstaking investigation by Odisha’s Crime Branch, led by senior IPS officer Arun Bothra, police arrested Punjilal Meher in April 2018.

Meher, an English lecturer at Jyoti Vikas College, held a grudge against Soumya’s mother, Sanjukta Sahu, who had replaced him as principal of the college.

Investigators concluded that the crime was meticulously planned as an act of revenge.

“All evidence was circumstantial, and there were no eyewitnesses. This was a blind case when we began. But we built it methodically and took it to conviction,” Bothra said after the ruling.

Meher reportedly began collecting firecracker materials months in advance. He learned how to assemble bombs using online resources and tested several prototypes before assembling the final device.

To avoid detection, he couriered the parcel from a basement service in Raipur with no CCTV surveillance, using a fake name and address.

After dispatching the package, he boarded a train back to Odisha the same night.

Soumya’s grieving parents attended both the trial and Wednesday’s judgment. “We are thankful to the court, but we had hoped for capital punishment,” said his father, Rabindra Sahu. “We will discuss whether to appeal for harsher sentencing.”

Victims’ lawyer Chittaranjan Kanungo said the ruling sends a powerful message to society: “The court recognised the heinous nature of the crime, even if it didn’t qualify as rarest of rare. Justice, though delayed, has finally been delivered.”

The investigation saw over 100 suspects questioned and 72 witness statements included in the chargesheet. Among the key pieces of evidence were courier receipts, parking lot logs, mobile data, and CCTV footage.

Though the verdict brings closure to one of the most chilling domestic terror cases in India’s recent history, the emotional toll on the families remains immense.

“We can never get back what we lost,” said Sanjukta Sahu, the victim’s mother. “But justice helps us breathe a little easier.”

The breakthrough in the case came from a misstep by Meher himself.

He had sent an anonymous letter to the district police chief to mislead investigators, claiming multiple people were involved and falsely attributing motives.

Ironically, this letter — written in refined English — alerted police to Meher, the only English lecturer among the suspects. Forensic evidence recovered from his home later linked him to the crime.