In a major development in the case of the missing Indore honeymoon couple in Shillong, Meghalaya, wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, missing for nearly two weeks, resurfaced and surrendered at the Nandganj police station in Ghazipur district, eastern Uttar Pradesh. She has been arrested in connection with the alleged murder of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, whose body was recovered in Meghalaya days earlier.
Additionally, three suspects believed to have been hired by Sonam as hitmen were also arrested, one in Uttar Pradesh and two in Indore.
Meghalaya Director General of Police (DGP) Idashisha Nongrang said Sonam was traced to Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, where she surrendered before the police. Three other accused were arrested during overnight raids. Nongrang also said that the arrested men have confessed that Sonam had hired them to kill Raghuvanshi.
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma praised the police for solving the case.
“Within 7 days, a major breakthrough has been achieved by the Meghalaya Police in the Raja murder case. 3 assailants who are from Madhya Pradesh have been arrested, a female has surrendered, and the operation is still on to catch one more assailant, wel done Meghalaya Police,” he wrote on X.
Raja Raghuvanshi and Sonam had travelled to Meghalaya for their honeymoon and visited several places before they went missing on May 23. While Raja’s body was found in a gorge on June 2, a search was on for Sonam.
A tourist guide in Mawlakhiat, Albert Pde, had told news agency PTI on Saturday that he had seen Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam with three men on the day they went missing during their honeymoon in Meghalaya.
According to Albert, he had spotted the couple accompanied by the three men while they were climbing over 3,000 steps from Nongriat to Mawlakhiat around 10 am on May 23. He had recognised them from the previous day, when he had offered to guide them to the famed living root bridge in Nongriat. The couple had politely declined and hired another guide instead.
He had also said the three men were speaking in Hindi, suggesting they were not locals.
The families of both Raja and Sonam had demanded a CBI probe into the case.
Raghuvanshi’s body was later found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls. A gold ring and a neck chain were found missing from his body, raising suspicion of murder. A day later, a bloodstained machete was recovered from the area, and two days after that, a raincoat similar to the one used by the couple was found in Mawkma village, located between Sohrarim and the gorge.
On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had said he had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to order a CBI investigation.
A day earlier, Sonam’s family had also urged the Centre to hand over the probe to the CBI, expressing dissatisfaction with the Meghalaya Police.
On Monday folowing her arrest, Sonam’s father, Devi Singh rejected the murder charges, he claimed that the police investigation was flawed. “The police are being misled by locals giving false statements. My daughter is 100 per cent innocent. I demand a CBI inquiry and request Amit Shah to ensure a proper investigation. What kind of proof do they have? Why would she kill her husband? The police haven’t even met Sonam but have already declared her guilty. Sonam is innocent. These are false claims.”
"The Meghalaya police are giving false statements about my daughter because the state government's image is getting tarnished due to Raja Raghuvanshi's murder case," he alleged.
Meanwhile Raja's family called for justice, his brother, Vipin Raghuvanshi, expressed doubts about the investigation, saying, “It’s a 1,500 km distance from Shillong to Ghaziabad... I have suspicions about Raj Kushwaha, whose name has come up. We need to confirm if it’s the same Raj Kushwaha who works as Sonam’s employer. Only when Sonam speaks will the truth come out. If she is involved, we accept whatever punishment the Madhya Pradesh government decides.”
Raja’s mother, Uma Raghuvanshi, demanded the harshest penalty for those responsible. “If Sonam did this, she should be punished too. Sonam always behaved well with us — we still can’t believe she could have done this. We had no clue anything was wrong, even during phone calls. If she is guilty, I want the death sentence. But if she is innocent, I won’t blame her falsely. I treated her like my own daughte
The couple had got married on May 11 and had left for their honeymoon to Meghalaya on May 20. They had arrived at Mawlakhiat village on May 22 on a rented scooter.
On May 24, their scooter was found abandoned near a café along the road from Shillong to Sohra, following which the search for the couple had begun.
A special investigation team (SIT), headed by a Superintendent of Police and assisted by four Deputy Superintendents of Police, had been constituted to probe the case.
(With inputs from Prasanta Majumdar, Namita Bajpai and PTI)