New details have come out in the murder case of Indore resident Raja Raghuvanshi, who was allegedly killed by his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, with the help of her lover Raj Kushwaha. The couple had gone to Meghalaya for their honeymoon when Raja was murdered. Earlier, it was believed that Sonam had been kidnapped, but Meghalaya Police have now revealed a different story after arresting her on the Varanasi-Ghazipur highway on June 8th.
According to sources, after Raja’s murder on May 23, Sonam took a train from Shillong to Indore via Siliguri. On May 25 she met Raj Kushwaha in Indore, who is suspected to have helped plan the murder and arranged for the killers. The two allegedly spent a night together in a rented house.
The next day, they arranged a car and driver to drop Sonam somewhere in Uttar Pradesh. Since then, she kept moving around in different parts of the state until her arrest on Varanasi-Ghazipur Highway. Meghalaya Police are now taking her back to Shillong for further investigation.
Sonam was picked up in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. A police team from Meghalaya has already left from Patna with her. The investigation is now focused on confirming her role in the planning and execution of the murder.
The police have named four people accused in the case:
Akash Rajput (19) – from Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh
Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) – from Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Raj Singh Kushwaha (21) – from Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Anand Kurmi (23) – from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh
The Indore Crime Branch and Shillong Police conducted searches at the homes of the accused. Vishal Singh Chauhan’s house was searched, and police recovered the clothes he wore on the day of the murder in Shillong. ACP Poonamchand Yadav from Indore Crime Branch confirmed that Vishal had admitted to being involved in the murder. Police are still looking for his mobile phone. Vivek Syiem, SP of East Khasi Hills, shared that the first arrest was of 19-year-old Akash Rajput from Lalitpur. Later, Vishal and Raj Kushwaha were arrested from Indore. On the day Sonam was located in Ghazipur, another accused was also arrested from Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh. One more person has been detained at Nandgarh Police Station.
Police say the murder happened on May 23, but the body was only recovered on June 2. At first, police were treating it as a missing case. After the body was found, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed, and within a week, major arrests were made.
SP Syiem added that the police now have enough evidence and are connecting all the clues. “This entire murder was carried out with planning. Raj Kushwaha and Sonam were at the center of it. All of them were underground until yesterday, when Sonam suddenly appeared, and we caught her,” he said.
