Three teams formed to gather evidence in Balangir parcel bomb case

Bhubaneswar: The State Crime Branch has formed three separate teams to collect more evidence against English lecturer Punjilal Meher in the Balangir parcel bomb case.

Meher was arrested on April 26 for planning and executing the parcel blast that killed two persons on February 23.

After taking stock of the investigation process with Crime Branch IG Arun Bothra, DGP Dr RP Sharma said that the three teams will visit Raipur, Hyderabad and Gandhinagar.

Sharma said a team led by Bothra has left for Raipur-based courier firm from where the English lecturer had allegedly sent a parcel bomb.

Sharma said the teams will collect more evidence and also to ensure the arrest of the auto driver and rickshaw puller who ferried Meher in Raipur. Statement of courier agency’s staff will also be recorded.

Meanwhile, the State Crime Branch is planning to rope in an agency in Israel to retrieve CCTV footage of a Raipur-based courier firm.

Crime Branch said the courier firm’s CCTV hard disk did not have high storage capacity. The investigating agency is now looking for an auto-rickshaw driver, who transported Meher to the courier shop on February 15.

Meher took the plea of his illness and sent the driver to dispatch the consignment to Patnagarh. When we scanned the CCTV footage, we could not get the visuals of the particular day.

Crime Branch will also send Meher’s laptop and some other electronic gadgets to Gandhinagar in Gujarat state forensic science laboratory to retrieve some data.