Meghalaya honeymoon murder: Raja Raghuvanshi ‘was killed in fourth attempt’, says top cop in big reveal
According to the police, the first attempt was made in Guwahati, followed by two failed plots in Sohra.
In a startling revelation, the Meghalaya Police on Thursday said that Raja Raghuvanshi was killed in the fourth attempt by the accused, which also included his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem, during a media briefing, said that the first attempt was made in Guwahati, followed by two failed plots in Sohra, before the Indore-based transport businessman was ultimately killed at Weisawdong.
“They wanted to get rid of him in various places. I want to tell you also that they wanted to get rid of Raja somewhere in Guwahati it did not materialised, they wanted to eliminate him in Nongriat but they did not find a place to dispose the body, they wanted to do it between Mawlakhiat and Weisawdong also when late Raja went to attend Nature’s call but that also didn’t fructify and finally they did it in Weisawdong,” the SP said, according to newsonair.gov.in.
Also Read | Raj was mastermind, had three backup plans for Raja’s murder: Meghalaya Police
Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam went missing during their honeymoon in Meghalaya on May 23. Raghuvanshi's body was found in a deep gorge near a waterfall in the Sohra area (also known as Cherrapunji) of the East Khasi Hills district on June 2.
As the search continued for Sonam, she emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away from the crime spot, in the early hours of June 9 and surrendered before police.
According to police, Sonam conspired with her boyfriend Raj Kushwaha to hire three other men to kill her husband Raja during their honeymoon, nearly two weeks after their wedding. The three killers — Akash Thakur, Anand Kurmi and Vishal Chauhan — are friends and one of them is Raj’s cousin.
‘Conspiracy was hatched in Indore’
According to the police, Sonam and the other accused have admitted to the crime.
According to Syiem, the plan to murder Raja Raghuvanshi was hatched in Indore just before Sonam's wedding.
“All the accused have admitted to (have committed) the offence. Sonam has admitted her complicity. The whole thing (conspiracy) had happened in Indore. The plan was hatched just before her marriage to Raja and the mastermind of this was Raj and Sonam played along with the plan and was a part and partner,” said Vivek Syiem.
Also Read | Honeymoon murder: Raja Raghuvanshi's kin seeks narco test on Sonam, her lover to bare 'full truth'
Planning for the murder had started in February, three months before Raja and Sonam’s wedding, a probe has revealed, as reported by Hindustan Times.
“The accused thought of different ways in which they could make Sonam disappear (before the wedding). One idea was to make her get washed away in a river (and claim she had disappeared or drowned), another was to murder a woman, put that person’s body in Sonam’s scooter, burn it and pass it off as Sonam’s. But all these plans didn’t fructify,” Syiem said.
