Parcel bomb: Punjilal gets life imprisonment

Seven years after a 'parcel bomb' blast killed a newly-married software engineer and his grandmother, and left his wife grievously wounded in Bolangir’s Patnagarh, a court in the district Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to the accused, Punjilal Meher, after holding him guilty of the crime that sent shockwaves across the nation in 2018.

- PNN & AGENCIES

Patnagarh Additional District and Sessions Judge Sonali Pattanaik also imposed a total fine of ₹1,40,000 on Meher, 56, for multiple charges, government counsel Chittaranjan Kanungo said.

The court convicted Meher under Sections 302 (₹50,000 fine), 307 (₹20,000 fine) and 201 (₹10,000 fine) of the IPC and Sections 3 (₹50,000 fine) and 4 (₹10,000 fine) of the Explosive Substances Act, he said.

“Our submission was to treat it as a rarest of rare cases. However, the court did not observe it as a rarest of rare cases because all heinous crime cases cannot be treated like that,” Kanungo said, adding that Meher will remain behind bars for the rest of his life.