India Jails Wedding Bomb Killer for Life Sentence

A former college principal in Odisha, eastern India, has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a newlywed man and his great aunt with a bomb disguised as a wedding gift.

Punjilal Meher, 56, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and use of explosives in the notorious “wedding bomb” case that shocked the nation in 2018.

The victims—Soumya Sekhar Sahu, a 26-year-old software engineer, and his 85-year-old great aunt Jemamani—were killed in a powerful explosion just five days after Soumya’s wedding. The bride, Reema, who opened the parcel, sustained severe injuries including burns, a punctured eardrum, and lasting trauma.

The bomb, sent from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, was expertly hidden in a parcel wrapped in jute thread. Investigators said it detonated when the groom pulled on a string to open the package, mistaking it for a wedding gift.

Following a complex investigation, police arrested Meher, a former principal at the same college where Soumya’s mother worked. Authorities believe Meher planned the attack out of professional jealousy and personal grudge. He used a fake name and address to avoid detection and chose a courier service with no surveillance systems.

A turning point in the case came when an anonymous letter was sent to the police, offering details about the parcel that only the sender could have known. The letter included cryptic references to betrayal and money and attempted to shift blame to a fictional group of three men. Investigators determined that Meher likely sent the letter himself in an effort to mislead them.

While the court recognized the brutality of the crime, it ruled out the death penalty, opting instead for life imprisonment.

The case drew national attention and was the subject of a BBC investigative series exploring the rare and calculated act of violence.