Indore/Shillong, Jun 11: The brother of Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of plotting the murder of her Indore-based husband Raja during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, on Wednesday said he is “100 per cent” sure his sister orchestrated the crime and asserted she should be hanged if found guilty.
A distraught Govind Raghuvanshi, brother of Sonam, declared his family has snapped all ties with his sister and expressed solidarity with Raja’s grieving family members and vowed to help them in their fight for justice in a case which has shocked the nation.
In a related development, a court in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong sent Sonam Raghuvanshi and her four aides arrested for the murder last month to eight-day police custody, an official said.
The Meghalaya police brought Sonam to Shillong from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday midnight and the other accused from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday on transit remand, a senior officer 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.
The special investigation team probing the sensational case sought police custody of the accused to reconstruct the crime scene in Sohra (also known as Cherrapunji), where the body was recovered on June 2, the officer said.
In Indore, Govind Raghuvanshi visited Raja’s house to console the latter’s family members. Sharing the family’s grief, he hugged Raja’s mother Uma and broke down.
Raja (29) and Sonam (24) got married on May 11 and went “missing” during their honeymoon trip to the north-eastern state on May 23.
Sonam surfaced in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur on Sunday night where she surrendered after her accomplices and suspected contract killers, Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), and Anand Kurmi, were arrested for their alleged role in conspiring and killing Raja, a businessman. Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), an alleged conspirator romantically linked to Sonam, was arrested later.
After meeting the family members of Raja Raghuvanshi at the latter’s house, Govind addressed the media.
Asked if Sonam should be given the capital punishment if charges against her were proved, he replied, “Absolutely, if Sonam is found guilty, she should be hanged straight away. I will appoint a lawyer myself to represent Raja Raghuvanshi’s family in the court.”
“I am with the truth. Raja Raghuvanshi’s family has lost a son. I have apologised to his family. Our family has broken ties with Sonam,” he said.
Govind Raghuvanshi said he now considered himself a member of Raja’s family, and announced to fight a legal battle to get his killers punished.
“I do not know whether my sister Sonam has confessed her crime in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case or not, but from the evidence that is coming out, I know 100 per cent that she is the one who executed this crime,” he emphasised.
The Meghalaya police are likely to bring Sonam to her hometown Indore, where the conspiracy of the crime was hatched, police official said.
The Meghalaya police have named their investigation in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case as ‘Operation Honeymoon’.
A Madhya Pradesh police official said Sonam could be brought to Indore in the next few days as part of investigation into the case.
“We have received information that Sonam came to Indore from Meghalaya (after Raja’s murder) and stayed in a rented flat in the city’s Dewas Naka area between May 25 and 27,” he said.
A police official associated with the investigations said in Shillong that Raja Raghuvanshi was told by his wife Sonam that she would let him consummate the marriage only after making an offering at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati.
Accordingly, Raja planned their trip to Guwahati and adjacent Meghalaya for the honeymoon, while his wife and her boyfriend Raj Kushwaha allegedly plotted to kill him in the jungles of the north-eastern state, considering its perceived remoteness, he said.
“Sonam coerced her husband to take her to the deep jungles of Nongriat with the belief that the hitmen she hired would have a better chance of killing him somewhere on the route, considering it is secluded. But, since there were too many tourists trekking to Nongriat on May 22 and May 23, they couldn’t kill him there,” the officer said.
“They finally killed him near Weisawdong Falls, and dumped his body into a deep gorge,” he said.
East Khasi Hills SP Syiem, overseeing the investigation, said the contract killers arrived in Guwahati on May 21, a day after the couple reached the Northeast.
The killers procured a machete from outside their hotel in Guwahati, and then travelled by road to Shillong, he said.
“We have gathered CCTV evidence, making this investigation a very tight-knit one,” the SP said.
Sonam was in touch with her boyfriend Raj throughout the day of the murder, while Raj coordinated with the three contract killers, he said.
“Sonam was present when Raja was killed,” the officer said.
The Meghalaya Police SIT is working across locations to piece together the entire chain of events, another officer said.
“We are also verifying Sonam’s claim that she had never been to Meghalaya before. The SIT is committed to filing a watertight chargesheet,” he said.(PTI)
