Bolangir: Punjilal Meher, the prime accused in the parcel bomb case of Patnagarh that killed newly-wed Soumya Sekhar Sahu and his grandmother, was shifted Friday to the Bolangir District Jail. Soumya’s wife Reema Sahu was injured seriously in the blast, but survived.
The decision to shift Punjilal was taken after a failed jailbreak attempt at the Patnagarh Sub-Jail. He was shifted amid tight security.
Meanwhile, Punjilal alleged that he was tortured mentally and physically by the authorities at the Patnagarh Sub-Jail. He claimed that he was on hunger strike from Thursday.
Punjilal was accused of masterminding the alleged escape bid by seven prisoners. The prisoners had allegedly tried to escape from the jail after they were instigated by Punjilal January 24. But the attempt was foiled as an alarm went off.
After this, jail superintendent Pradip Kumar had appealed to the District Judge to shift Punjilal to another jail.
But after arriving at the Bolangir District Jail Punjilal denied the allegations and demanded scrutiny of the CCTV footage in Patnagarh Sub-Jail.
“There was no jailbreak attempt. The jail authorities were torturing me and are levelling false charges,” he told the media after coming to Bolangir jail.
Punjilal was arrested April 25 by the Crime Branch for planning and executing the parcel bomb blast.
He held a grudge against Soumya’s mother as she was promoted to the Principal’s post at the college where he was working as an English lecturer. Punjilal had reportedly planned to wipe out the entire family.
PNN
