Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police crime branch on Tuesday claimed that it had cracked the sensational February 23 Patnagarh parcel-bomb explosion case in which a newly-married youth and his grandmother were killed and the bride was critically injured.
After two months of the intense investigation, the probe agency nabbed one Punjilal Meher, an English lecturer and former principal, and three others in connection with the case.
“It was a very tough case to crack. However, the crime branch officials worked hard to apprehend the key accused. The investigation process in on and in due course of time we will brief the media about the execution of crime plan by the accused,” said state director general of police Rajendra Prasad Sharma.
Sources said Punjilal had a dispute with the groom Soumyasekhar’s mother, Sanjukta Sahoo, who following a government order replaced him as the principal of Jyoti Vikash Junior College at Bhainsa in Bolangir district.
The accused was reluctant to hand over power to Sanjukta.
In a bid to eliminate Sanjukta’s family, Punjilal along with a few others hatched a conspiracy and accordingly sent a parcel bomb wrapped in a gift box to her house on the occasion of the wedding reception of Soumyasekhar.
When Soumyasekhar opened the gift box, it exploded killing him and his grandmother Jemam-ani on the spot, while the bride, Reema Rani Sahoo, was seriously injured.
After undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Reema was discharged from the hospital last week.
The investigators had on Monday seized a cache of crude explosives from the paternal house of Punjilal in Rampur.
