Shillong, Jun 8: A tourist guide on Saturday claimed that the honeymoon couple from Indore, Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam, was accompanied by three men on the day they went missing from Meghalaya’s Sohra area.
An official confirmed that the guide had provided this information to the police.
While the couple went missing on May 23, Raja’s body was found in a gorge on June 2 while a search for his wife was underway.
Speaking to PTI, Albert Pde, a guide at Mawlakhiat, said he had seen the couple accompanied by three male tourists as they were climbing over 3,000 steps from Nongriat to Mawlakhiat around 10 am on May 23.
He said he recognised the couple as he had offered his services to them on the previous day to climb down to Nongriat but they had politely refused and hired another guide.
“The four men were walking ahead while the woman was behind. The four men were conversing in Hindi but I could not understand what they were speaking as I know only Khasi and English,” Pde said.
He said that he had offered his services to take them to Nongriat on May 22 but they had hired another guide, named Bha Wansai, and spent the night at Shipara homestay and returned the next day without a guide.
“By the time I reached Mawlakhiat, their scooter was not there,” the guide claimed.
He has also given his statement to the police.
The newlywed’s rented scooter was found at Sohrarim, several kilometres from the parking lot at Mawlakhiat with the keys latched to it.
Meanwhile, even as Sonam is yet to be traced, his brother Govind, who is camping in Shillong, accused the state government of not doing enough and searching for her “like she is dead”.
“We strongly believe Sonam is alive. They are searching for her like she is dead,” Govind said, urging authorities to take help from the CBI or any other agencies.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has assured that the government was leaving “no stone unturned” to find the missing woman.
However, the terrain, extremely heavy rainfall and foggy weather conditions that reduce visibility to only a few feet were affecting the search operation.
“We are trying our best… our boys are doing what they can without rest using gadgets and trained dogs. The search will continue,” East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem said.
Raja’s decomposed body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong falls on June 2.
A gold ring and a neck chain were found missing from his body, further leading to suspicion that he was murdered. A day later, a bloodstained machete was discovered nearby and two days later, a raincoat that was similar to the one used by the couple was found in Mawkma village, half-way between Sohrarim and the gorge where Raja’s body was found.
Another CCTV footage from one of the homestays showed that Sonam was wearing a similar raincoat.
At the Mawlakhiat parking lot, there are no CCTVs and no registers to record the vehicles being parked.
“The village itself has very poor infrastructure and inconsistent power supply,” an elder at the village said.
Asked if the couple and the three other men left Mawlakhiat together, he said he could not remember any specific individual since there are many visitors in a day.
The locals have decided to start recording the vehicle numbers and visitors’ phone numbers.
A special investigation team headed by an SP and assisted by four DSPs is probing the matter.
The search for Sonam is continuing with the participation of NDRF, SDRF, mountaineers, sniffer dogs and drones.(PTI)
