‘Missing’ wife of Indore man found dead on honeymoon in Meghalaya arrested for his murder

MEGHALAYA, JUN 9 : The missing wife of Indore man Raja Raghuvanshi, who was found dead in Meghalaya during their honeymoon, has been arrested in connection with his alleged murder, reported PTI. Citing police sources, the report said the wife, Sonam, allegedly plotted the killing by hiring contract killers.

As per reports , 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.

“One person was picked up from Uttar Pradesh, and another two accused were apprehended from Indore by the SIT. Sonam surrendered at the Nandganj police station and was subsequently arrested,” police were quoted as saying.

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.

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.

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.

 “My daughter has been abducted and is still in the clutches of her captors. Meghalaya Police are not investigating the matter properly. They have been negligent right from the beginning. I had been seeking the deployment of the Army since the day they went missing. If it had been done in time, they would have been found safely,” Sonam’s father, Devi Singh Raghuvanshi, had told PTI.

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.

-PTI