Odisha wedding gift blast: Court rejects accused Punjilal’s bail plea

Balangir: The Court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) in Odisha’s Balangir today rejected the bail plea of Punjilal Meher, the accused in the sensational Patnagarh wedding gift blast case.

“We will move the High Court seeking bail,” said Punjilal’s counsel. The ADJ court had yesterday reserved its verdict after hearing the bail petition filed by him.

Notably, Punjilal was arrested on April 25 by Odisha Crime Branch and is currently lodged at Patnagarh Sub-Jail. He has been charged under Sections 302 and 307 of IPC besides Explosive Offences Act.

A dispute was prevailing between Punjilal, English lecturer of Jyoti Vikash Junior College at Bhainsa in Balangir district, and deceased Soumya Sekhar’s mother Sanjukta, principal of the college, over the post. Punjilal served as the principal of the college before being replaced by Sanjukta and was reluctant to hand over the charge to her.

In order to seek “revenge” in this connection, Punjilal planned the whole episode, police had said. He made the bomb himself, carried it in the shape of a parcel and booked it at a courier company near Raipur railway station.

Worth mentioning, Reema Rani’s husband Soumya Sekhar and his grandmother Jemamani were killed when a bomb wrapped as a wedding gift blasted while unwrapping the same on February 23, four days after the couple’s marriage.