Two weeks ago, Indore newlyweds Raja Raghuvanshi and Sonam Raghuvanshi vanished from a homestay after visiting the scenic living root bridges of Meghalaya. A week ago, 29-year-old Raja’s decomposed body was recovered from a nearby gorge. And on Monday, 25-year-old Sonam turned up at a roadside eatery in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district – more than 1,200km away – and was arrested for her husband’s murder.
Meghalaya Police said Sonam Raghuvanshi allegedly conspired with her boyfriend Raj Kushwaha to hire three other men to kill her husband Raja, a businessman, during their honeymoon, nearly two weeks after their wedding.
Meghalaya director general of police, I Nongrang, said that Sonam surrendered before Nandganj police in Ghazipur in the early hours of Monday, and four other men were caught during overnight raids in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
“So far, what we know is that Sonam and Kushwaha hatched a conspiracy to kill Raja so that they can live together,” the DGP said. It remained unclear how Sonam made it halfway across the country without getting tracked.
Kushwaha, 21, and one of the three assailants, Vishal Singh Chauhan alias Vikki, 22, are from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, the same town as Raja and Sonam . Another assailant – Akash Rajput, 19 – is from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh, said police. East Khasi Hills superintendent of police Vivek Syiem said one person – Anand Kurmi– was arrested from Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on Monday.
Police have not shared details of the FIR, but officials said on condition of anonymity that they registered a murder case on June 2 after Raja’s body with injuries to head was found.
{{/usCountry}}Police have not shared details of the FIR, but officials said on condition of anonymity that they registered a murder case on June 2 after Raja’s body with injuries to head was found.
{{/usCountry}}In the evening, a court in Ghazipur granted the Meghalaya Police three-day transit remand to take Sonam to the state for further investigation. On similar lines, an Indore court gave the police seven days of transmit remand to take Kushwaha, Chauhan and Rajput to Meghalaya.
At the one stop centre in Ghazipur where Sonam was temporarily lodged on Monday, staffers said she rejected the allegations. “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.
Raja and Sonam got married on May 11 in Indore. On May 20, they arrived in Shillong for their honeymoon. On May 23, 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 found 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 Sohra and the gorge where Raja’s body was found.
Meghalaya police said the machete was its first clue.
“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. We found she had spoken to one of the killers a few days before the murder and had shared her last location with them before they disappeared,” an investigating officer said, requesting anonymity.
A tourist guide in Mawlakhiat, Albert Pde, told police that he had seen Raja and Sonam with three men on the day they went missing. Albert said on Saturday that the couple and the three men were speaking in Hindi as they climbed the 3,000 steps from Nongriat to Mawlakhiat around 10 am on May 23. Police said Kushwaha was not in Meghalaya and was coordinating with the three hired killers from Indore.
Police didn’t elaborate why Raja could be talking to the three men, or if he knew Kushwaha at all. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an officer said that Sonam had met Kushwaha at her brother’s plywood factory about two years ago, where he used to work as an assistant, and he eventually moved to a house closer to her residence in Indore as their relationship grew.
Indore’s additional deputy police commissioner, Rajesh Dandotiya, who had questioned the two assailants arrested from Indore on Sunday night, said that Sonam and Kushwaha decided to kill her husband to be together.
Kushwaha hired Vishal Chauhan, Anand Kurmi and Akash Thakur, he added. “The plan was to kill Raja in a distant place, dump her body somewhere where it would not be found and then live happily,” Dandotiya said.
Police officers said the killers were arranged by Kushwaha, and Sonam had promised them money.
The Indore police officer Dandotiya said that Sonam told her husband that they could go to Meghalaya for their honeymoon on May 19, a day after she finalised the murder plan with Kushwaha. This was also corroborated by Raja’s mother Uma Raghuvanshi.
“My son went to Meghalaya with Sonam on her insistence. He did not want to go on honeymoon so soon. My son had told me that Sonam booked tickets for the trip to Meghalaya…My son also told me that although Sonam had not booked the return ticket for both of them from Meghalaya, they will return to Indore in six-seven days,” she said.
Around 1am on Monday, Sonam was seen at the Kashi Dhaba in the Nandganj area of Ghazipur, around 40 km from Varanasi. “A woman came crying to the dhaba early on Monday. She looked quite distraught. She asked for my mobile phone to call her house (her kin). I told her to sit in a chair and gave her my mobile. Then she made a call to her kin... Thereafter, she returned my mobile and kept sitting at the dhaba,” said dhaba owner, Sahil Yadav.
When he asked her how she reached dhaba, Sonam said she walked several kilometers to reach the eatery from a point along the road where she was dropped at night, Sahil said.
When he asked who dropped her, at first she didn’t say anything, said Sahil. “Then when asked again, she said she had no idea, she didn’t know anything.”
Sonam allegedly called her brother Govind, who then informed the police. “When she called me, I got emotional, and later informed the police. Until I meet her (Sonam), I cannot say anything. For the last 72 hours, I have been awake. It’s been 20 days since I met her,” Govind said in Indore, refusing to divulge more details about his conservation with her.
Superintendent of police, Ghazipur, Iraj Raza said, “Madhya Pradesh Police this morning (Monday morning) informed that a woman named Sonam is present at the Kashi Dhaba along Varanasi-Gorakhpur highway in the Nandganj police station area in Ghazipur district. Taking cognisance of the information, a police team led by station officer Nandganj reached the dhaba, recovered her and rushed the woman to Ghazipur district hospital where she was treated. Later, she was shifted to the one-stop centre in Ghazipur.”
On Monday afternoon, Madhya Pradesh Police arrested Anand Kurmi, 23, from Sagar district.
Chief minister Conrad K Sangma congratulated the state police.”Within 7 days, a major breakthrough has been achieved by the #meghalayapolice in the Raja murder case... 3 assailants who are from Madhya Pradesh have been arrested, female has surrendered and operation still on to catch 1 more assailant… well done,” he posted on X.