Honeymoon murder: Meghalaya court sends Sonam, aides to 8-day police custody

 

 

 

A COURT in Shillong on Wednesday sent Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of killing her husband Raja during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, and her four aides to eight-day police custody, an official said. The Meghalaya police brought Sonam here from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday midnight and the other accused from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday on transit remand, a senior officer said. “Police had sought a 10-day remand of all the accused. The court granted 8 days of police custody,” East Khasi Hills district SP Vivek Syiem told PTI. Sonam, a 24-year-old woman, was arrested from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, while her aides were apprehended from Indore in Madhya Pradesh for their alleged role in conspiring and killing Raja Raghuvanshi.

 

The special investigation team sought police custody of the accused to reconstruct the crime scene in Sohra, the officer said. The SIT has secured a six-day remand for the accused persons from Indore and that of three days for one arrested from Ghazipur, he added. Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife went missing while vacationing in Meghalaya’s Sohra area on May 23. His body was found in a gorge on June 2. Earlier in the day, Sonam was taken to a hospital here where they ran three tests to verify if she was pregnant while medical tests on the other accused were conducted at the Sadar PS here. Syiem said all tests came out negative and another round of tests on her will be conducted after 24 hours. The SP said that the SIT will thoroughly interrogate each of the five accused. Requesting media outlets not to “speculate”, the SP said the police investigation also includes corroboration of their statements with all evidence including CCTV footage, call records, etc.

 

 

 

RAJA Raghuvanshi, the Indore resident killed while honeymooning in Meghalaya, was told by his wife Sonam that she would let him consummate the marriage only after making an offering at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, investigators said on Wednesday. Accordingly, Raja planned their trip to Guwahati and adjacent Meghalaya for the honeymoon, while his wife and her boyfriend allegedly plotted to kill him in the jungles of the north-eastern state, considering its perceived remoteness, they said. “Sonam convinced her husband Raja that they need to make offerings at the Kamakhya Devi Temple before consummating the marriage,” a police officer who is a part of the investigation told PTI.

 

“Sonam coerced her husband to take her to the deep jungles of Nongriat with the belief that the hitmen she hired would have a better chance of killing him somewhere on the route, considering it is secluded. But, since there were too many tourists trekking to Nongriat on May 22 and May 23, they couldn’t kill him there,” the officer said. “They finally killed him near Weisawdong Falls, and dumped his body into the deep gorge,” he said. The killers procured a machete from outside their hotel in Guwahati, and then travelled by road to Shillong, he said.