‘Police had early leads, but refrained from sharing as it might impact on investigation’
Shillong, June 10: Chief minister Conrad K Sangma has assured that Meghalaya government would do everything under its capacity to fast track the case related to the murder of Indore-based Raja Raghuvanshi and subsequent arrest of his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, and four others.
“Of course, we want to do it as fast as possible and whatever steps need to be taken from our side as a government to do it, we will do whatever needs to be done and we will try to fast track things,” Sangma said.
After a week of intense search operation for Sonam Raghuvanshi, who was thought murdered or even kidnapped, the 24-year-old newly married woman surrendered at Nandganj police station in Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh, closely after Meghalaya police successfully had nabbed four of her accomplices from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
After her medical examination and appearance in a local court, she was taken into custody by Meghalaya police.
Meanwhile the chief minister termed as “unfortunate” misreporting of the case by national media, saying, “It is very unfortunate that the press in certain sections of the media had twisted the entire story and kind of trying to blame the people of Meghalaya and the state. But now that the facts are out, we know how it happened.”
Reminding his stand on the whole episode, especially allegations of involvement of local elements in the crime, he said, “I have always maintained that the people of Meghalaya and the North East are friendly people, who always treat their guests and tourists as family. They always respect and take care so it is very unfortunate that some of the media really tried to play this in the wrong way. Now that the facts are out, things are quite clear.”
Informing that he was given regular updates on progress in investigation into the sensational case dubbed as “honeymoon murder”, the chief minister congratulated Meghalaya police for cracking the case in record time.
“They had in fact got the leads very early, but they refrained from sharing it because they felt that it would affect the investigation. So we quietly kept investigating and I am happy that we have reached the logical conclusion,” he said.
