SHILLONG: A court in Shillong on Wednesday sent Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of killing her husband Raja during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, and her four aides to eight-day police custody, an official said.
Sonam was brought to the hill station in the early hours of Wednesday and taken to a hospital for a medical examination. The report of her pregnancy test was negative, Meghalaya Police said. The other accused were brought in from Madhya Pradesh during the day, a senior police officer said.
“We still have many loose ends to tie up. We have adequate evidence that she was involved, but we need to interrogate her further,” the SP said.
"Police had sought a 10-day remand of all the accused. The court granted 8 days of police custody," East Khasi Hills district SP Vivek Syiem told PTI.
All five were interrogated by the police for several hours at Sadar Police Station, Shillong. Later, they were taken to the court of the District and Sessions Judge in a convoy of vehicles under tight security arrangements.
The police did not disclose the outcome of the interrogation. East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Vivek Syiem, told the media that the police have sufficient evidence against Sonam.
Commenting on reports that claimed Sonam had confessed to the crime, he urged the media not to jump to conclusions. “While certain statements were made during interrogations in other states, we need to verify and corroborate the roles of each of the accused with evidence,” he added.
He further stated that the reconstruction of the crime scene would depend on the outcome of initial examinations and the recording of the statements of the accused.
Sonam had “surrendered” before the police in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, while the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Meghalaya government had arrested Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), and Anand Kurmi (23) from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh with assistance from the police in those states.
The honeymoon couple, Raja and Sonam were reported missing from Meghalaya’s Sohra (Cherrapunjee) area on May 23. After an eight-day search, police recovered the decomposed body of Raja on June 2. However, Sonam remained missing until resurfacing in Uttar Pradesh in the early hours of Monday.
