According to Meghalaya Police sources, the conspiracy to murder Raja was plotted by Sonam and Raj. As per the plan, Raj stayed back in Indore while Akash, Vishal, and Anand came to Shillong.
Shillong: The Meghalaya Police has claimed that Sonam Raghuvanshi, after the murder of Indore-based transport businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, traveled from Shillong to Indore via Siliguri by train. While addressing the media, Shillong SP Vivek Syiem said that Sonam arrived in Indore on May 25 and stayed in a rented room. She also met the alleged lover and co-accused in the case, Raj Kushwaha in Indore. After that, she traveled to Varanasi in a rented car and later surrendered in Ghazipur.
“We have received the information that Sonam came to Indore and stayed in a rented flat in Dewas Naka area between May 25 and 27,” the official said, adding that Meghalaya Police will be able to give detailed information. A Meghalaya Police team, meanwhile, visited one of the accused Vishal Chauhan’s house in Indore.
Indore’s Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh Dandotia said a 12-member team of Meghalaya Police left for Shillong with the four accused — Raj Kushwaha, Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi — after obtaining their transit custody from a court.
According to Meghalaya Police sources, the conspiracy to murder Raja was plotted by Sonam and Raj. As per the plan, Raj stayed back in Indore while Akash, Vishal, and Anand came to Shillong. The weapon used to kill Raja — a dao (a small axe) — was ordered online from Guwahati. Akash, Vishal, and Anand stayed at a hotel just one kilometer away from Sonam and Raja’s homestay in Shillong. Sonam had their contact numbers.
How things unfolded:
- After their wedding on May 11 in Indore, Raja and Sonam travelled to the northeastern state for honeymoon.
- They disappeared on May 23, hours after checking out of a homestay at Nongriat village
Nongriat village is 20 km from where Raja’s body was found on June 2.
Raja was killed by three men allegedly hired by Sonam, who went ‘missing’. - She surfaced in UP’s Ghazipur on Sunday night where she surrendered at the Nandganj police station after Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), and Anand Kurmi were arrested from UP and Indore and Sagar towns. Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), the alleged conspirator, was arrested later.
- Prima facie, there is no previous criminal record against all four accused, aged 20 to 25 years, in local police stations, an Indore Police official said
- Kushwaha and three other accused are currently in the transit custody of Meghalaya Police.
- A tourist guide from Sohra in Meghalaya, who alerted police about the presence of three men accompanying Raja and Sonam on the day they went missing, on Tuesday claimed that he identified one of the suspects after seeing some photographs.
- The autopsy report of Raja Raghuvanshi indicated that he was hit twice with a sharp object on his head, officials at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) said.
