Patnagarh Parcel Blast Follow-Up: Raipur Police Identify Auto Driver

Cuttack: A team of Crime Branch (CB) officers is in Raipur to interrogate the autorickshaw driver, whom the alleged mastermind of the Patnagarh parcel gift blast Punjilal Meher had hired to courier the bomb.

Sources said the three-member team left for Raipur on Saturday night after being informed by the local police that they had identified the autorickshaw driver. The officers are planning to bring him to Cuttack on transit remand and interrogate him in the presence of Punjilal, the sources added.

Meanwhile, another Crime Branch team is camping in Balangir district headquarters to collect details about the cracker shop and its owner from whom the accused had purchased crackers to prepare the bomb. The state investigating agency has decided to bring the cracker shop owner to Cuttack for interrogation.

Apart from these two principal witnesses, the CB has also decided to seek state-of-the-art technology to collect full-proof evidence against Punjilal.

While different items seized by the CB sleuths from the house of the mastermind have been sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) in Bhubaneswar, some among them would be sent to the top national and international laboratories.

The CCTV footage collected from the DTDC courier service would be sent to Aminolab in Israel to confirm presence of Punjilal.

The investigating agency would also be sending Punjilal’s laptop to retrieve the letter that he had deleted after sending it to the police, post crime to mislead them.

Besides, the letter would be sent to Forensic Science Laboratory at Gandhinagar in Gujarat, and the envelope for DNA test since it is suspected that Punjilal might have sealed it by using the saliva of his tongue.