INDORE: While all five suspects arrested in connection with Raja Raghuvanshi’s May 23 honeymoon trip killing in Meghalaya are now in police custody in the northeastern state, back in their home city Indore, a significant development happened between the families of Raja and his wife and the murder case’s prime suspect Sonam.
Sonam’s brother, Govind Raghuvanshi, visited the home of Raja Raghuvanshi on Wednesday and broke into tears after hugging his slain brother-in-law’s mother, Uma Raghuvanshi.
The significant family development happened two days after Sonam and Govind’s father, Devi Singh, claimed that his daughter was 100% innocent in the case.
Contrary to his father’s claims, Govind said, “Sonam told me in Ghazipur (UP) that she had nothing to do with the crime. I don’t know whether she has confessed to the crime now or not. But the evidence which is now being reported clearly suggests that she got it (Raja’s killing) done. If proven guilty, she should get the death sentence. I’ll personally ensure she gets that punishment.”
“I had a very good bonding with Raja, his family has lost him forever. I’ll work with this family as its own member to get justice done to those who did it. I’ll personally go there (Meghalaya) for the hearing in the case and ensure that she (Sonam) gets punished for committing the crime. This family has lost its son, but I’m now a part of this family and we’ve broken our ties with Sonam,” Govind said.
While ruling out any love affair between Sonam and the employee of his father’s business Raj Kushwah, he said, Sonam tied Rakhi on Raj’s hand. Raj was working in our business for the last 3 years and always addressed Sonam as Didi. “Even the picture of Raj and Sonam seated together which is doing rounds of media, seems to be part of a bigger picture where others too were present.”
Importantly, Govind visited the family, just after there were reports of his family’s business’s hawala links and also payment to the killers having been made through the hawala route. The visit to Raja’s family also came a day after Raja’s brother, Vipin Raghuvanshi, had claimed that Sonam’s mother knew about her daughter’s affair with their employee Raj Kushwah, so she should also be named among the accused and be quizzed by cops.
“We don’t have to do anything with hawala. False stories are being cooked up. The man Jitendra Raghuvanshi, whose name is cropping up, is my maternal cousin as well as a junior employee in our family business, who looks after loading and unloading in the godown. The account in his name actually has that money of ours which is spent on taking care of the day-to-day expenditure of the business.”
Govind’s denial of any hawala link to his family’s business or Sonam happened amid unconfirmed reports about Sonam making transactions through an account held in the name of Jitendra Raghuvanshi. Cops are also probing strong possibility of Rs 50,000 cash having been given to the three assassins by Raj Kushwah (before they left for the North East on May 20) through some hawala operator, operating from an industrial town close to Indore.
The possibility of Sonam or her father’s business’s suspected hawala links have particularly arisen, after the investigators had during the ongoing probe, found in Raj Kushwah’s phone, some pictures of broken currency notes, which pointed towards a possible hawala connection, informed sources told TNIE.
Sonam and Raj’s brother apologise to the Meghalaya government
Meanwhile, Sonam’s brother Govind and Raj’s elder brother Sachin Raghuvanshi apologised for having made irresponsible statements in the recent past about Meghalaya state, its government and the police investigations there.
Importantly, before Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was found in Meghalaya on June 2, his brothers were calling the Meghalaya police probe inadequate and demanding a CBI probe.
Govind’s father, Devi Singh in particular, had on Monday claimed that the Meghalaya police was cooking up a false story of Sonam’s involvement in Raja’s murder and had demanded a CBI probe.
“We apologise for our statements made about Meghalaya and police there,” Govind said.
