An English professor’s plot for revenge turned a wedding celebration into a deadly tragedy, resulting in India’s first-ever parcel bomb case.
This was no ordinary crime. Dubbed India’s first parcel bomb case, it unfolded like a sinister thriller: a festive wedding, a mysterious gift box, a meticulously planned detonation — and behind it all, a man with a grudge.
The court also imposed a Rs 50,000 fine on Meher, who was present as the Additional District Judge delivered the verdict.
No Eyewitnesses, No Suspects
The investigation into the mysterious blast began with no eyewitnesses, no apparent suspects — and no clear motive. It eventually led to Meher, a lecturer at the same college where Sanjukta Sahu worked. Investigators later revealed that he was upset after being replaced by her as principal of Jyoti Vikas College in Bhainsa.
The parcel bomb was no spur-of-the-moment decision. Meher had allegedly spent months preparing for it. As per police sources, he began hoarding firecrackers after Diwali the previous year, extracting gunpowder and studying bomb-making techniques online. He tested smaller explosives before assembling the final device, which he packed inside a cardboard box and carefully gift-wrapped.
His movements were just as calculated. Days before the explosion, Meher took a train to Raipur, about 250 km away, to find a courier service — specifically one without CCTV cameras. Using the alias “S K Sharma” and a fake address, he dispatched the parcel, then returned to Odisha that same evening.
On February 20, the parcel arrived in Patnagarh and was handed over to Soumya’s household three days later. By then, Meher had not only attended the wedding celebrations — he would go on to appear at the funeral too.
Anonymous Letter
To derail the investigation, Meher also sent an anonymous letter to the Bolangir Superintendent of Police, falsely claiming three people were involved in the bombing and citing “betrayal” by Soumya as the motive. The letter, however, ended up being a critical clue.
“This was a special case as there was no evidence at all when the Crime Branch took up the investigation,” said IPS officer Arun Bothra, who led the probe. “All evidence was circumstantial and there were no eyewitnesses. We are satisfied that we took it to conviction from a blind case, and justice is served to the family.”
The letter’s tone and language proved revealing. “The language, the font size and the spacing in the letter indicated that it was sent by someone with command over English,” Bothra added. “It led us to zero in on the accused, who was an English lecturer. When we searched his house, we got some evidence, which was scientifically matched. That was the turning point in the case.”
In August 2018, the Crime Branch filed its chargesheet, which included testimonies from 72 witnesses. Investigators presented the anonymous letter, train station receipt books from Kantabanji, and digital evidence — including mobile phones, pen drives, a laptop, hard disks — along with CCTV footage from the Raipur courier office.
