BALANGIR – In a shocking incident, a newlywed groom was killed and his wife critically injured in the eastern Indian state of Odisha when their ‘wedding gift’ exploded.
The grandmother of Soumya Ranjan Sahoo, a software engineer, was also killed when a courier package thought to be a wedding gift exploded the moment they opened it on Friday in their house in Balangir district.
The groom succumbed to his injuries after being shifted to a Rourkela hospital.
Soumya’s wife Reema Sahoo, a homemaker, has been admitted to hospital where her condition is stated to be serious.
They had received the gift at their reception on February 18, the Times of India reported.
The blast was so powerful that the kitchen where it was opened was “destroyed beyond recognition,” police said.
#Odisha: Groom killed, bride critically injured after a wedding gift received by the couple exploded in Bolangir district’s Patnagarh. The groom’s grandmother also died in the incident. Police probe underway. pic.twitter.com/rDG7f5bQYb
— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018
The parcel contained a high-grade explosive. Police suspect it was covered with gelatin tightly bound with twine.
Police are yet to detain a suspect in this connection but are not ruling out past enmity as a motive.
Soumya’s father, a college teacher, was away in Delhi when the incident occurred. His mother, a lecturer at a local college, was at work.
Cops are now trying to find out who gave the package to the couple.
They are probing if Soumya had any enemies in Bengaluru, or if “anyone held a grudge against the couple marrying each other.”
