For delivering a package bomb that murdered a newlywed man and his great-aunt in 2018, a former college principal in the eastern Indian state of Odisha was given a life sentence. In the “wedding bomb” case that shocked India, Punjilal Meher, 56, was found guilty by a court of murder, attempted murder, and explosives usage. Days after his wedding, 26-year-old software programmer Soumya Sekhar Sahu received the bomb at his house in disguise as a wedding present.
Sahu and his great aunt were killed when the parcel detonated when the pair opened it, and his wife, Reema, who did so, was seriously injured. The prosecution’s claim that it was a “heinous” crime was acknowledged by the court, but it refused to categorise it as a “rarest of the rare” case that qualified for the death penalty. The peaceful town of Patnagarh, located in the Bolangir district of Odisha, was the scene of the February 2018 explosion.
Five days into their marriage, the victims were making lunch when a package showed up at their house. Supposedly delivered from Raipur in Chattisgarh state, more than 230 kilometres (142 miles) distant, it was addressed to Soumya and looked like a wedding present. Soumya and his 85-year-old great-aunt Jemamani Sahu were killed when a tremendous explosion ripped through the kitchen as he tugged a thread on the package to open it. Reema, who was 22 at the time, survived with severe burns, trauma, and an eardrum puncture. Meher, then 49, a teacher and former principal of a nearby college where Soumya’s mother worked, was taken into custody by police following a protracted inquiry.
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