Meghalya court sends Sonam and aides to eight-day police remand
11-Jun-2025 09:55 PM 5656
Shillong, June 11 (Reporter) A lower court in Meghalaya on Wednesday sent Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi, and the four key conspirators, to eight-day police custody, an official said. Sonam together with her aides - VIshal Chauhan, Raj Kushwaha, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi - were produced before the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, East Khasi Hills district, Don Kitbor Koshy Mihsil ten days after Meghalaya Police recovered the decomposed body of Raja from a deep gorge below the Wei Sawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang in Sohra. “We had sought a 10-day police custody for all the five accused. The court granted 8 days of police custody,” Vivek Syiem, the district police chief of East Khasi Hills, told UNI. He added : “If the investigators feel they would again approach the court to seek additional days of police custody.” Syiem said the reconstruction of the crime scene at the parking lot of Wai Sawdong Falls, where Raja was allegedly murdered, will be conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Meghalaya Police after all the accused are examined, the role of each one is ascertained and their statements recorded. “As of now only five are accused in the case. However, as the investigation progresses we will ascertain if other persons are also involved in the case,” he said when asked if there were more suspects in the murder case. Earlier in the day, Sonam and her four aides were brought to Shillong from Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport in Assam. Sonam was taken to Ganesh Das Hospital in Shillong for a routine medical examination. She was also examined whether she was pregnant, but the report came out negative. “There was lot of speculative reports about her pregnancy. We have to ensure that her health is fine, That is of utmost importance,” Syiem said, adding that the four accused were medically examined within the Sadar police station by registered government doctors. Sonam was arrested by the Special Investigation Team on June 9, a day after she surrendered at the Nanganj Police Station in Ghazipur district on Sunday night. Police said Raja's murder was allegedly plotted by Sonam and her alleged boyfriend Raj Singh Kushwaha, just few days after their wedding on May 11 in Indore. The newly wedded couple arrived in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong from Assam’s main city of Guwahati on May 21 on a honeymoon. On May 22, theyrode all the way on their rented two wheeler to Sohra, the wettest place on earth, in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district as part of their honeymoon. The couple stayed in Shipara Homestay at Nongriat village- home to the famed living double decker root bridge on May 22. They checked out of their homestay in the morning and remained incommunicado with their family members from May 23. In fact, the missing of the Indore’s honeymooner came to light when villagers found an abandoned two-wheeler, which Sonam and Raja hired from Shillong for four days, on May 24 at Sohrarim village between Shillong and Sohra road. After a missing report was filed, Meghalaya police launched a search and rescue operation with the State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Force, local people and other agencies to locate the newly wedded couple in Sohra. Eight days later, Meghalaya Police found Raja’s body on June 2 from a deep gorge below the Wei Sawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang in Sohra. Police said Sonam, together with three others, after allegedly committing Raja's murder, left Sohra and boarded a train to Indore from Assam’s main city of Guwahati on May 24. Meghalaya Police, which codenamed the investigation as ‘Operation Honeymoon’, had collected evidence from the residences and other places frequented by the murder accused in Indore and Ghazipur. The SIT have seized a machete, believed to be the murder weapon, recovered near Raja’s dead body. The other items recovered at the crime scene include a white shirt, a strip of Pentra 40 tablets, part of an LCD screen from a mobile phone, and a smartwatch worn by the deceased...////...
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