Patnagarh: The Patnagarh Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) today allowed the Crime Branch to take Punjilal Meher – the main accused in the wedding gift blast case, on another five-day remand.
Though the Crime Branch had sought remand of eight days, it was granted only five days of custody for further interrogation. Punjilal was produced before the court amid tight security.
"We had prayed before the court for an eight-day remand, but it allowed only five-days custody. Punjilal's statement will be verified and direction of the probe will be planned accordingly," Crime branch SIT head Anil Kumar Das told media persons.
Das said that the investigating team was successful in digging up many vital clues during the first phase of remand that had lasted for six days.
Replying to a query on any information on the auto driver who took Punjilal to the courier shop, Das said the probe team has no information on it yet.
While a three-member team of Crime Branch is currently in Raipur to carry out probe, IG Arun Bothra is also likely to join the investigation, informed sources.
Punjilal’s laptop has been sent to the national forensic laboratory to retrieve the data that was reportedly deleted by him after executing the crime.
Efforts are on to send the CCTV footage collected from one of the three courier offices in Raipur to an Israel-based agency to confirm Punjilal’s presence in the recordings. Although the accused was captured in the CCTV camera, the data has been overwritten in the hard drive and can be retrieved only by using advanced technologies, informed sources.
On February 23, newly-wed Soumyasekhar and his grandmother were killed when a wedding gift parcel received through courier exploded inside their house in Patnagarh.