Odisha wedding gift blast: Accused identified by courier owner

Balangir: In ongoing probe into the Patnagarh wedding gift blast, owner of a courier company, which was used for sending parcel, identified the prime accused Punjilal Meher.

Punjilal, who is currently lodged in Patnagarh Sub jail following another five-day Crime Branch remand, was identified by SkyKing courier owner Harvindar Singh Saluja and an employee of DTDC, Rina.

Both Saluja and Rina could be able to identify the mastermind Punjilal in presence of a magistrate during Test Identification Parade (TIP) at Patnagarh Sub Jail on May 14.

The SkyKing courier owner and another courier firm DTDC visited the jail from Raipur following the summon issued by the Patnagarh Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) on May 11 directing them appear at Patnagarh Sub Jail on May 14.

According to reports, Punjilal, an English lecturer by profession, had first approached the DTDC courier after reaching Raipur on his bullet on February 15 to send the wedding gift to the victim’s address at Patnagarh. However, he failed to send the parcel as the courier company asked him to show his ID proof.

Punjilal tried second time to dispatch the wedding gift containing the bomb from the city in Chhattisgarh through an auto rickshaw driver, who couriered the parcel at SkyKing courier to Patnagarh.

Notably, the wedding gift exploded on February 23 claiming two lives including the newlywed groom Soumya Sekhar Sahoo and wounding his wife Reema Rani Sahoo.

During probe into the incident, Odisha Crime Branch cracked the case and exposed the mastermind Punjilal, who plotted the crime very meticulously and single handedly targeting to eliminate Soumya Sekhar’s mother out of professional grudge.