Balangir: With the second-phase remand of Punjilal Meher, mastermind of the sensational Patnagarh parcel gift blast, ending on Sunday, the special investigation team (SIT) of the Crime Branch has intensified efforts to gather conclusive evidence against him.
Sources said the SIT took Meher to Raipur on Saturday morning to elicit the details of his modus operandi. Before taking him to Raipur, the SIT conducted his health check-up at a government hospital in Padmapur. After arriving in Raipur, Meher was taken to a guest house where he gave a live demo before the Crime Branch IG, starting from boarding the train from Kantabanjhi, hiring two rickshaws and then one autorickshaw in Raipur and booking the parcel bomb in a courier service.
Prior to taking Meher to Raipur, the SIT, including Crime Branch IG Arun Bothra, had interrogated him at the PWD guest house in Kantabanjhi for detailed information about his crime plot.
Though Meher has confessed to his crime, the Crime Branch has to gather full-proof evidence against him for which it has to trace the two rickshaw-pullers and the autorickshaw driver. The state investigating team has also announced cash reward for the two rickshaw pullers and the autorickshaw driver if they personally appear before it and furnish details about Meher.
Notably, the Crime Branch SIT had taken Meher on a six-day remand on April 26, a day after his arrest. After the end of the remand period, it had produced him before the SDJM court at Patnagarh on May 2 and prayed for another 8-day remand, to which the latter had them to take the accused for five days. The court had also asked the Crime Branch to produce Meher at 12.30 pm on May 7 after the end of the remand period.
