BHOPAL: Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of orchestrating her husband Raja Raghuvanshi’s murder during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, was arrested early Monday, hours after a dramatic reappearance and 'surrender' that ended more than two weeks of intense searching for her.
Apart from Sonam Raghuvanshi, three others were arrested for the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi, including a man she was allegedly in an affair with.
A six-hour late-night telephone conversation between Sonam Raghuvanshi and her firm’s employee, and alleged lover, Raj Singh Kushwah, her hurry to finalize a honeymoon trip to Meghalaya, and her insistence that husband Raja Raghuvanshi wear a gold chain and rings during the trip might have led investigators to zero in on Sonam and Raj as key suspects in Raja Raghuvanshi’s killing.
A ten-hour joint operation by the Meghalaya police and their Madhya Pradesh counterparts in Indore led to the arrest of 21-year-old Raj Singh Kushwah and his two accomplices on Sunday.
The operation began with the arrest of 19-year-old Akash Rajput from Lalitpur district, who was brought to Indore late Sunday evening. Subsequently, prime suspect Raj Singh Kushwah and another key accomplice, 22-year-old Vishal Chauhan, were arrested in the Nandbag area of Indore.
Raj’s third accomplice, 23-year-old Anand Kurmi, who joined Vishal and Akash in allegedly killing Raja Raghuvanshi in Meghalaya on June 23, was arrested a few hours later, around 11:30 am on Monday, at his relative’s house in Sagar district of MP’s Bundelkhand region.
Importantly, within an hour of Raj Singh Kushwah’s arrest in Indore, Sonam Raghuvanshi surfaced after mysteriously disappearing for two weeks at Ghazipur district.
Sonam Raghuvanshiwas produced before a local court in Ghazipur on Monday night for transit remand permission, following which she was expected to be taken into custody by a Meghalaya Police team that reached here in the evening. The court proceedings continued till late in the night. Three others arrested in the case were sent to transit custody of the Meghalaya police for seven days.
Sources say Sonam had a long telephonic chat between 9 pm and 3 am with her firm’s employee Raj Singh Kushwah on the night of May 16–17. On May 17, Raj Singh met his old friends, Akash, Vishal, and Anand, all from Indore’s Nandbag area at a café in the Super Corridor, where the murder plot may have been hatched.
A few days later, Sonam planned a honeymoon to Assam and Meghalaya and booked flight tickets for herself and Raja, without booking return tickets. Raja was reportedly reluctant to travel just ten days after marriage; Sonam insisted and arranged everything. She also forced him to wear gold jewelry on the trip, which Raja’s sisters‐in‐law say their mother opposed when Raja informed her via video call on May 20.
Sonam told a Dhaba owner in Ghazipur district that on their trip to Meghalaya some men attacked them to loot jewellery; when Raja tried to intervene, they killed him.”
Police suspect that Sonam’s insistence on gold jewelry and the lack of return tickets might have been part of a staged robbery‐cum‐murder plot.
Investigators are also investigating whether Sonam withdrew a large sum of money after the wedding and before the trip.
Evidence shows Sonam and Raj Singh were in constant contact, using separate SIM cards even during the trip.
Police say Sonam Raghuvanshi shared the couple's live location with the assassins.
Ongoing investigations reveal that while Raj Singh stayed behind in Indore, his three childhood friends, Akash, Vishal, and Anand traveled to Guwahati via premium train through Delhi. They met Sonam and Raja in Shillong as tourists and accompanied them to Meghalaya on May 23, where Raja was allegedly killed according to the plot devised by Raj. The trio then returned to Indore and resumed daily life.
Investigators suspect Sonam may have had an affair with Raj, which could have been a motive behind Raja’s murder.
According to Meghalaya Special Investigation Team (SIT) chief Herbert Pyniaid Kharkongor, Raja suffered two fatal head injuries, which might have been inflicted by a sharp weapon.
Sonam’s father, Devi Singh Raghuvanshi, strongly rejects the Meghalaya police narrative. He said, “This entire false story is concocted due to their failure to investigate. We demand a CBI probe. I’ll send a legal notice for tarnishing my daughter’s image. She is totally innocent.”
Meanwhile, Raja’s mother, Uma Raghuvanshi said, “Raja didn’t want to go to Meghalaya. It was Sonam who planned and booked the trip without return tickets.
She forced him to wear a gold chain, and I objected when Raja told me mid-trip. I even spoke to Sonam’s mother.
Sonam was sweet and cultured; I treated her as my daughter. I wanted the marriage to wait a year for a good muhurat, but her father rushed it. If Sonam didn’t want to be with my son, she could have left, but why did he have to die? If she’s behind his killing, she should get the death penalty.”