On February 23, 2018 in the quiet town of Patnagarh, Odisha, India, a new couple married for just five days. 26 year old software engineer Soumya Sekar Sahu and Rima were at home preparing lunch when a courier delivered what looked like another wedding gift addressed to Soumya. The package had been sent from raipur, more than 230 km away. When Sumia pulled the thread to unwrap it, the box exploded. The blast ripped through the house, shattering windows and cracking walls. Soumya’s 85 year old great aunt Ginamani was fatally injured and died on the way to the hospital. Sumia himself was rushed to VSS Medical College and hospital but didn’t survive. Rima, who had been by his side, was thrown across the room. She suffered severe burns, a punctured eardrum that left her with permanent hearing damage and other injuries. She was rushed to the hospital where she stayed for over a month, fighting to recover. Later, she described how the explosion left her in shock, her skin blistered and her body so weak she couldn’t move on her own. She said she still hears the sound of that blast in her head, still sees the moment her husband collapsed beside her. What should have been the happiest week of her life became the beginning of years of physical and emotional scars.

Welcome to Love and Heartbreak to Homicide. We are Kai’s AI co hosts Gein Jensen and Jessica, bringing you your Friday cases that Kai writes. This is Foreign Affairs Friday where we step outside the US to cover shocking crimes that happened abroad. If you like hearing these cases told with the victim in mind, make sure to follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening. You can also subscribe on our Patreon for free to get some perks. Patreon.com loveandmurder and don’t forget this podcast is listener funded so join us on Patreon using a bonus tier to get bonus episodes, behind the scenes extras and to become a voice of the victim right along with us. Patreon.com loveandmurder now let’s get back to your Foreign Affairs Friday episode.

The man behind the attack was Punjilal Mehr, a 49 year old English lecturer and former college principal. His motive was revenge. Years earlier he had been serving as UH in charge principal of Jyoti Vikas College. But in 2014 he was replaced by History lecturer Sanjukta Sahu who was Soumya’s mother. Meha refused to give up his position and threatened her openly. Being removed left him humiliated and his resentment grew into an Obsession. That bitterness eventually turned into a meticulous plan to destroy her family. He started preparing months in advance. He studied bomb making through YouTube videos and online manuals, later deleting his browser history. During a celebration in 2017, he collected firecrackers to stockpile gunpowder. He tested his devices by packing the powder into LED lights and triggering them to make sure they worked. When the device was ready, he packed it into a cardboard box wrapped like a wedding gift. On the day he mailed it, he even made an alibi for himself by attending class at the college. He then travelled nearly 250 kilometres by train to Raipur, deliberately avoiding buying a ticket to leave no record. There. He found a courier shop in a basement that had no cameras or scanning machines. He mailed the box under a false name, S.K. sharma, and gave a fake return address. He listed the contents as quote, gift articles and sweets. That evening, he quietly took the train back home and three days later, the box reached the Sahu household. In his final touch, he attended both Sumia’s wedding and later his funeral at UH first investigators had nothing. No ideas, no leads, no evidence. The case was handed from local police to the Odisha Crime Branch, but there were no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints and no CCTV. More than 100 suspects were questioned and dismissed. Senior IPS officer Arun Bothra, who led the case, said this was a special.

Case as there was no evidence at all. When the Crime Branch took up the investigation, all evidence was circumstantial.

Weeks went by without Progress. Then, in April 2018, an anonymous letter arrived for investigators. It claimed three men were behind the project and that the motive was Soumya’s betrayal. Basically, it was hinting at a scorned lover or property dispute. It even accused police of harassing innocent people. But the letter backfired. It referred to the sender of the parcel as SK Sinha. Even though the courier records listed SK Sharma, that detail could only have come from the person who sent the package. Investigators noticed the polished English, the phrasing and the spacing. Soumya’s mother immediately recognized it as resembling the style of her colleague, Punjilal Mehr. Suspicion turned back to him. Police searched his house and found evidence that was scientifically matched to other elements of the case linking him to the crime. During questioning, he first gave an implausible story about being forced to deliver the letter under um, threat, but later confessed. In August 2018, the crime branch filed its charge sheet, naming him as the only person of interest. The prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence, the anonymous letter, railway parking receipts, his phones and laptop, and testimony from 72 witnesses. They also tied him to the Raipur courier shop. Punjilal was charged with murder, attempted murder and um, the use of explosives. Prosecutors called the crime heinous, reminding the court that he planned it for months, hoarded materials, built the bomb himself and deliberately sent it disguised as a gift to a newlywed couple. Rima became a central figure during the trial. She testified about sitting beside her husband as he opened the package, about the blinding flash of the explosion, and about waking up in the hospital to learn Sumia was gone. She said that the burns scarred her not just physically, but emotionally. Her young marriage destroyed her future. Stolen for weeks after her discharge, she couldn’t sleep through the night without reliving the moment of the blast. After seven years, on May 28, 2025, a district court in Bolanghir convicted Punjilal and and sentenced him to life in prison, along with a fine of 50,000 rupees. Judge Sonali Patnaik ruled that while the crime was heinous, it did not qualify as a rarest of the rare case that would bring the death penalty. Soomia’s parents had mixed feelings of the sentencing. His mother Sanjukta, said she was satisfied with the ruling, but added that nothing could bring her son back. His father, Rabindra told the media, we.

Were hoping for capital punishment in the crime considering it’s rarest of the rare nature. But the court sentenced life imprisonment. We express our gratitude to the court.

For investigators, the conviction was a hard won victory.

Aaron Bothra said, we are satisfied that we took it to conviction from a blind case. Injustice is served to the family.

Now, six years later, Reema has remarried and moved abroad. Sumia’s own father helped arrange her second marriage so she could heal and find joy again. Resilient, she remains close to her in laws and keeps in regular contact with them. India’s first parcel bomb case remains one of the most shocking examples of calculated revenge. What began as professional jealousy turned into an act of violence that shattered an entire family. Reima, who still carries the scars of that day, has become the lasting symbol of the tragedy. Her survival a reminder of both the cruelty of the attack and um, the strength it takes to go on after losing everything in a single moment.

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