Meghalaya murder: How a couple’s first trip to the hills set the stage for a killing

Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of orchestrating her husband's murder during their honeymoon, was arrested along with her lover and hired killers in Indore.

The plan to kill Raja Raghuvanshi may have even been in the works even before his May 11 wedding with Sonam Raghuvanshi, who is now accused of orchestrating the Indore businessman’s murder during their honeymoon in Meghalaya along with her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

Sonam, 25, who had been missing since May 23, turned up in a dhaba in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and was arrested in the early hours of Monday. (X/@satyaagrahindia)

Kushwaha, 21, and one of the three men he allegedly hired to kill 29-year-old Raghuvanshi, Vishal Singh Chauhan, were arrested from Indore by Meghalaya police on Sunday night. Two others who carried out the murder, Akash Rajput from Lalitpur in UP and Anand Kurmi from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, were also arrested. Sonam, 25, who had been missing since May 23, turned up in a dhaba in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and was arrested in the early hours of Monday.

“Kushwaha was in contact with the killers for some weeks,” the Indore police officer, who is aware of the questioning of Raj Kushwaha and Chauhan, said. The three hired killers, the officer said, left Indore for Meghalaya on May 17 with ₹50,000 and a mobile phone provided by Kushwaha. Once there, they chose a spot to kill Raghuvanshi and dispose of his body.

On May 16, Sonam shared her honeymoon plan with Raja and booked tickets the day after, Raja’s mother, Uma Raghuvanshi, said. “My son told me that Sonam was insisting on a honeymoon and we agreed,” she said.

Uma said that Sonam took ₹nine lakh from her son for the honeymoon and also took her some jewellery with her. “When I asked my son when they would return, he told me that no return ticket has been booked and they would come back within a week,” she told reporters on Monday.

On May 20, the couple reached Shillong. Three days later, hours after they checked out of a homestay at Nongriat village, the couple vanished in the Sohra area of the East Khasi Hills district.

A scooter that the couple hired from Shillong was found in Sohrarim on May 24. On May 25, a missing persons complaint was lodged by Raja’s family in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills District.

On June 2, Raja’s body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls – around 20km from where they were last seen. A gold ring and a chain were missing from his body.

A day later, a bloodstained machete was found nearby, and two days later, a raincoat that was similar to the one used by the couple was found in Mawkma village, halfway between Sohrarim and the gorge where Raghuvanshi’s body was found.

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According to the Meghalaya police, the first critical clue was the machete used to kill Raja. “It was not a machete used in the region. It led to our suspicion that someone from outside the region was involved. We decided to check the call details of the couple,” a Meghalaya police investigating officer said.

The officer said the call records indicated she had been in touch with Kushwaha and had shared her last location with him before the couple went missing.

Police stated on Monday that an autopsy report on Raghuvanshi’s body showed two sharp cut wounds on his head--one at the back and another in front--probably inflicted with the same machete found near the victim’s body.

A tourist guide in Mawlakhiat, Albert Pde, gave police another vital clue. Pde told reporters on Saturday that he had seen the couple on May 23 with three men, who were speaking in Hindi, as they were climbing from Nongriat to Mawlakhiat at around 10 am. “Raja was walking with the three men, while Sonam was walking slowly behind,” Pde said.

This was corroborated with CCTV footage from the homestay in Sohra where the Raghuvanshi couple had stayed. Viven Syiem, police superintendent of East Khasi Hills district, said the CCTV footage showed three men in the background when the couple were leaving the homestay on the morning of May 23.

“Further investigation led us to Akash Rajput in Lalitpur Uttar Pradesh and then Vishal Singh Chauhan and Raj Singh Kushwaha in Indore. The fourth accused Anand Kurmi was arrested on Monday,” he said, adding that Kushwaha, who did not come to Meghalaya, was handling the three accused.

“Kushwaha along with Soman are the two prime accused,” he added

According to Indore police, Sonam, 25, had met Kushwaha, 21, at her brother’s plywood factory about two years ago, where he used to work as an assistant, and thereafter, he moved to a house closer to her residence in Indore as their relationship grew. A month before Sonam’s engagement with Raja, Kushwaha left his house but the two remained in contact, the officer said.

At about 1 am on Monday, a visibly exhausted Sonam walked into Kashi Dhaba on the Varanasi-Gorakhpur Highway and asked four men seated around a table for help. But they refused, said Sahil Yadav, the young owner of the dhaba.

“As they refused, the woman directly came to me and asked me for my mobile phone, saying ‘bhaiya, please help me, give me your mobile, I have to talk to my family’. Then I gave her my phone. She dialled her brother’s number and started crying,” said Sahil. He added that he then spoke to her brother and gave him the address of his dhaba.

Her brother Govind Raghuvanshi said, “She told me where she was and I informed the police.” Yadav, however, said that Sonam told him that she had walked several kilometers to reach the eatery from a point along the road where she was dropped at night. She did not tell him who dropped her there.

Yadav said that Sonam told him that she got married in May and had gone to Meghalaya with her husband for their honeymoon and was robbed. “She then fainted,” Sahil said, adding that after some time police came and took her away.

Uttar Pradesh police officials said they were not aware how she reached Gazipur from Meghalaya. A Meghalaya police officer said they could provide more details on how she reached Gazipur only after her interrogation. The killers, one police officer said, had left Meghalaya on May 23 itself and they had claimed none else accompanied them.