Meghalaya murder twist: Raja Raghuvanshi's killers planned to burn woman's body, pass it off as Sonam Raghuvanshi
The Meghalaya Police has uncovered a chilling twist in the murder of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi. Investigators revealed that the killers had planned to murder an unidentified woman and burn her body to make it appear as Raja's wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi. The intent, police said, was to buy Sonam more time to remain in hiding before the truth came to light.
Vivek Syiem, police superintendent of East Khasi Hills said Raj Kushwaha was the mastermind in the murder plot, and Sonam Raghuvanshi is the co-conspirator, Hindustan Times earlier reported.
The entire conspiracy to eliminate Raja Raghuvanshi was decided in Indore, shortly before his wedding. The accused narrated that there were three other plans related to the murder which did not materialise, before Raja was murdered.
Syiem said the four arrested killers, including Raj Khushwaha, are the friends of Sonam and Raj, with one of them being the latter's cousin. The planning for murder began in February, three months before the wedding. Sonam emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away, on June 9 and surrendered.
The officer also said one of the plans was to make people believe that Sonam got washed away by a river, while another plan was to murder any woman, put the person's body in Sonam's scooter, burn it and claim that it was of Sonam.
The group arrived a few days before the newlywed couple reached Assam on May 19, and they had initially planned to eliminate Raja somewhere in Guwahati. Since both plans did not fructify, they planned to come to Shillong and then Sohra, reported HT.
All of them met at Nongriat, and started together for Weisawdong Falls, and there all three hit Raja with a machete in the parking lot and killed him in front of Sonam, before throwing the body in a gorge. Sonam gave Akash the raincoat she was wearing as his shirt had a blood spot. They left Weisawdong on scooters, and Akash threw the raincoat later as it too had blood stains.
Raj gave Sonam a burqa through Vishal Chauhan, and she used it to travel from Shillong to Indore. A tour guide later claimed to have seen Sonam and Raj with three others. Raj told her to leave Indore and reappear in Siliguri, pretending to be an abduction victim. But after Akash's arrest on June 8, Raj panicked and made Sonam call her family and say that she had escaped an abduction. Following this, Sonam appeared in Ghazipur and was later taken into custody.
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