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'Kidnapped, didn't murder Raja Raghuvanshi...': What Sonam Raghuvanshi told authorities in Meghalaya case
Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of her husband Raja's murder during their honeymoon, was arrested in Ghazipur. Raja's body was found in Meghalaya.
Indore resident Sonam Raghuvanshi, who is accused of orchestrating the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi on their honeymoon, was arrested from 'Kashi Dhaba' on the Varanasi-Ghazipur main road on Monday, Ghazipur superintendent of police Iraz Raja said.
Sonam Raghuvanshi, 24, was sent to the Sadar Hospital for treatment and then kept at a one-stop centre, which provides assistance to women in distress, including medical and legal aid.
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At the one-stop centre in Ghazipur, staffers told HT that Sonam has rejected the allegations of murder.
"After she woke up later in the afternoon, she said she was kidnapped and said she did not kill anyone,” said a staffer, requesting anonymity.
Her family defended her. “My daughter is innocent. I have trust in my daughter. She cannot do this (kill her husband)... They got married with the consent of both families…My daughter came to a dhaba in Ghazipur last night and she called her brother... Police went to the dhaba, and she was taken from there,” said her father, Devi Singh Raghuvanshi.
Meghalaya director general of police I Nongrang said Sonam orchestrated the murder of her husband in the scenic town of Sohra in the northeastern state He also revealed the details of the shocking crime that triggered a manhunt across three states.
Raja Raghuvanshi was killed by men allegedly hired by Sonam, who went 'missing' and surfaced in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur where she surrendered at the Nandganj police station after the arrest of three assailants – Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), Akash Rajput (19) and Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) – in overnight raids, police said.
"The first person arrested was Rajput from Lalitpur in UP. The second was Chauhan from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The third was Kushwaha, also from Indore," East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem said at a press conference in Shillong.
Sonam was taken into custody by the Meghalaya Police around 6.30 pm, and legal process for her transit to the northeastern state is underway, officials said.
The three persons arrested in MP were sent to Meghalaya on a seven-day transit remand by a district court in Indore, they said.
Raja Raghuvanshi was found dead in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls in East Khasi Hills district on June 2, 10 days after the couple went missing.
Raja and Sonam, who got married on May 11 in Indore, went to Meghalaya on their honeymoon. They disappeared on May 23, hours after checking out of a homestay at Nongriat village, 20 km from where his body was found.
Raja's relatives identified the body through a distinctive tattoo on his right hand. A woman's white shirt, a strip of medicine, a part of the LCD screen of a mobile phone, and a smartwatch were also seized at the spot.
