Shillong Court Remands Sonam, 4 Others in Husband’s Murder

Shillong/Indore:A Shillong court on Wednesday remanded Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of killing her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, and her four aides to eight-day police custody. In an unusual twist, Sonam’s brother Govind Raghuvanshi visited the bereaved Raja Raghuvanshi’s house in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore and assured his family of full cooperation in ensuring his sister is punished for committing the crime.

Earlier, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Meghalaya police brought Sonam and four other accused persons — Raj Kushwaha, Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan and Anand Kuli — to Shillong on a transit remand. The 24-year-old woman was arrested from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, while her aides were apprehended from Indore for their alleged role in conspiring and killing. The special investigation team sought police custody of the accused to reconstruct the crime scene in Sohra, the officer said.

"The SIT that brought Sonam here shortly before midnight. She was taken to a hospital here around 2 am to ascertain whether she was pregnant or not. She had undergone three tests," a senior Meghalaya police officer said, adding that the results of the tests were negative.

"Police had sought a 10-day remand of all the accused. The court granted eight days of police custody," East Khasi Hills district SP Vivek Syiem told media.

The Meghalaya police will reconstruct the crime scene in Sohra, where the alleged incident took place.

Briefing the media, the East Khasi Hills district SP said, “This is an ongoing investigation and we have to confirm a lot of things… There are a lot of loose ends that we need to tie up… We can confirm them only after Sonam’s interrogation. In our evidence, it is proven that she is involved. It will become clear after her interrogation. We also need to recreate the crime scene to corroborate various pieces of evidence.”

Mt Syiem reiterated that while the police have confirmation of Sonam’s involvement in the murder, the extent and nature of her involvement will only come out after more investigation over the next few days.

The Meghalaya police, which codenamed the investigation as "Operation Honeymoon", collected evidence from the residences and other places frequented by the accused in Indore and Ghazipur, Mr Syiem said.

Back in Madhya Pradesh, convinced of his sister's guilt, Govind said his family had snapped ties with her and vowed to fight a legal battle to get justice for Raja Raghuvanshi's family.

Wednesday marks one month to the day Sonam and Raja got married.

Govind, who had been camped in Shillong for 17 days to trace out his sister after she went missing since her husband’s body was found in a gorge in the area on May 23, said he had met Sonam for three minutes after she resurfaced in Ghazipur on June 9. She was in police custody then.

“I couldn’t talk much to her at that time and she also did not tell me if she was involved in the murder,” he told the media in Indore.

Though police has yet to confirm Sonam's involvement, Govind appears convinced about his sister's role in the murder, considering the evidence available so far. He said: ‘Sonam has done a wrong thing and she must be punished. I will personally see that she is punished.”

Govind said his slain brother-in-law Raja Raghuvanshi was a good soul and he was equally distraught over his murder. He couldn’t believe the media reports about the affair between his sister and Raj Kushwaha, who was an employee in his plywood business firm in Indore, since Sonam once tied "rakhi" to Raj before him.

He also apologised to Uma Raghuvamsi, mother of the slain Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, for the tragedy and cried while holding her in his arms. Uma asked Govind why he did not slap when he met Sonam in Ghazipur, to which he said, “I did not get time.”

A friend of the slain businessman has meanwhile claimed that the couple did not consummate the marriage since Sonam had told her husband that she had a wish to consummate the marriage only after visiting the Kamakhya temple. The friend claimed that this was told to him by the victim.

The family members said that the couple went to Guwahati to visit Kamakhya temple at the initiative of Sonam, and Meghalaya was not in their original tour schedule.