The Indian teacher receives a life sentence for deadly murders of a “wedding bomb”

A former college director in the Eastern Indian state of Odisha was sentenced to life in prison for sending a parcel with a parcel in which the newlyweds and his great aunt in 2018 were killed.

The court found a Pendzhil Meher, a 56 -year -old, guilty of murder, attempted murder and use of explosives in what became known as the Wedding Bomb case, which stunned India.

The bomb, concealed as a wedding gift, was delivered to the home of Soumya Sekhar Sahu, a 26-year-old software engineer, just days after his wedding.

When the couple opened the package, she exploded – killing Sahu and his big aunt and left his wife Rema, who opened the package critically wounded.

While acknowledging the prosecution’s argument that it was a “disgusting” crime, the court refused to classify it as “the worst of the rare” case deserving the death penalty.

The BBC covered the incident in a detailed investigative series of two parts.

The explosion in February 2018 was held in Patagarh, a quiet city in the area of ​​Bolangir of Odisha.

The victims were only married for five days and prepared lunch when a parcel arrived at their home. It was addressed to Soumya and appeared to be a wedding gift that was said to have been sent by Raipur to Chatisgarh, at a distance of over 230 km (142 miles).

As the sum pulled on a parcel to open it, a powerful blast was torn through the kitchen, killing him and his 85-year-old Grand Aunt Gumamani Sahu. Rema, then 22 years old, survived with serious burns, a pierced eardrum and trauma.

Following a long investigation, police arrested Meher, then at the age of 49, a teacher and a former director of a local college where the mother of the sum worked.

The investigators then told me that Meher encountered an insult to professional rivalry and carefully planned the attack. He uses a fake name and address to send the Raipur bomb, choosing a courier service without CCTV or scanning parcels.

The bomb traveled over 650 km (40 miles) by bus, passing through many hands before it was delivered. Investigators said it was a rude but deadly device wrapped in a Utah thread, arranged to explode when opened.

The plot bearing the explosive is a fake name – SK Sharma from Raipur. Weeks have passed without clear suspects. Investigators shook thousands of telephone records and questioned over 100 people, including one person who made a threatening call after a Rema’s engagement – but nothing remained.

Then, in April, an anonymous letter reached the local police chief.

He claims that the bomb was sent under the name “Sk Sinha”, not Sharma and encrypted motives for “betrayal” and money.

The letter alleges that three men have “undertaken the project” and have now been “beyond the police range”. He cites the “betrayal” of the groom and the money – hinting at a despised lover or a dispute about property – as motives. He also asked the police to stop the bullying of innocents.

The letter turned the investigation.

Arun Botra, a police officer who then headed the branch of Odisha’s crime, noticed that the handwriting of the Colette receipt was a mistake: it looks like a “bin” more than Sharma.

Most importantly, the writer of letters seemed to know this – something that only the sender could know.

Police now believed that the suspect himself had sent the letter.

“It was a sender kneder knew more the crime than we did. By Writing that it was being sent to the crime ecte ec Three People.

The victim’s mother, a college teacher, acknowledged the style and phraseology of writing a letter like that of a colleague Meher, a former director she replaced.

Previously, police rejected the rivalry of Meher’s workplace as a routine academic policy. He has now become a major suspect.

In questioning, Meher initially suggested an unjust -like story of being forced to deliver the letter under threat.

Police say he later admitted: he stored fireworks during Diwali, extracted gunpowder, built the bomb and sent it from Raipur with the help of a courier.

He is said to have left his phone at home to create alibi and avoid CCTV without buying a train ticket. Meher had even attended both the victim’s wedding and the funeral.

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