Honeymoon Murder On Screen? Raja Raghuvanshi's Family Okays Movie
Family members of Indore-based transport businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, murdered during his honeymoon trip to Meghalaya, have consented to a film on the crime, which caused ripples following the arrest of his wife Sonam and her suspected lover.
The film, being directed by SP Nimbawat, is tentatively titled "Honeymoon in Shillong".
"We gave our consent for the upcoming film on the murder case. We believe that if we do not bring the story of my brother's murder on the big screen, people will not be able to know who was right and who was wrong?" Raghuvanshi's elder brother, Sachin, told reporters, Another brother, Vipin, said they want to present the correct image of Meghalaya through the film.
Mr Nimbawat said Raja Raghuvanshi faced a big betrayal after his marriage.
"Through our film, we want to give a message to the public that such incidents of betrayal should be stopped," he said.
Without revealing the names of actors, Mr Nimbawat said the script of the film is ready.
"80 per cent of its shooting will be done in Indore and the remaining 20 per cent in different areas of Meghalaya," he added.
Raja Raghuvanshi had travelled to Meghalaya with his wife Sonam in May. Days after he went missing, his mutilated body was found on June 2 in a deep gorge near a waterfall in the Sohra area (also known as Cherrapunji) in East Khasi Hills district.
Police arrested eight people, including Raja's wife Sonam, and her suspected lover, Raj Kushwaha.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
2 minutes ago
- Hans India
State police launch ‘Op TRACE' to find missing girls
Vijayawada: In a focused effort to trace missing girls across Andhra Pradesh, director general of police Harish Kumar Gupta on Thursday launched 'Operation TRACE', a month-long special drive to be conducted from August 1 to 31. The campaign, coordinated by the women and child safety wing, aims to address growing concerns over abductions and disappearances of girls by uniting the police machinery in a targeted, statewide initiative. Unveiling the campaign poster at the DGP's office, Harish Kumar Gupta explained that Operation TRACE is built on a five-point strategy — Trace, Reconnect, Assist, Counsel, and Empower. Under the first component 'Trace', advanced tools like CCTNS, theMission Vatsalya Portal, facial recognition software, and Aadhaar-based age verification will be used to identify and track missing girls. Intensive surveillance will be undertakenat transport hubs, border checkposts, and shelters, especially in high-risk areas, with the deployment of women police officers. 'Reconnect' focuses on reuniting rescued girls with their families and providing them temporary accommodation under the care of Child Welfare Committees (CWCs). Under 'Assist', girls will receive immediate medical help, food, shelter, clothing, legal aid, and identity documentation. In cases involving trafficking or abuse, FIRs will be promptly registered. 'Counsel' will involve psychological support and mental health interventions in partnership with NGOs, while 'Empower' aims to ensure long-term rehabilitation by facilitating education, skill development, career guidance, and linking survivors to government welfare schemes. The DGP also released a detailed action plan for the operation. From August 1–2, task forces at district and sub-divisional levels will be formed to collect and consolidate data on missing children. From August 3–10, inspections will be carried out at government and NGO-run shelters, and FIRs will be reverified using technologies such as DNA testing and facial recognition. During August 11–30, special search operations will be held in railway stations, bus stands, temples, and red-light areas. A public engagement campaign titled 'FIND HER' will also be rolled out to encourage citizen participation. To report missing children, the public can use the 'Report Missing Children' feature in the Shakti App or reach out through the following helplines: 112 (Police), 1098 (Child Helpline), 181 (Women's Helpline), and the Shakti WhatsApp Helpline at 7993485111. DGP Harish Kumar Gupta directed all district police units to prioritise Operation TRACE and ensure its strict implementation through local police stations. Senior officials including ADGP (L&O) N. Madhusudhana Reddy, IGP APSP and In-charge of women and child safety wing B Rajakumari, and SP, women protection cell, N Sridevi Rao were present at the launch event.
Hindustan Times
32 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Mithi River desilting fraud: ED searches properties of five contractors
MUMBAI: The Mumbai unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches in Mumbai at eight properties of civic contractors as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged irregularities in contracts to desilt the Mithi River, according to officials aware of the developments. Mumbai, India. June 30, 2025: View of the polluted Mithi River at the Powai area of Mumbai. The Mithi River flows through Salsette Island, which is part of the city of Mumbai. Mumbai, India. June 3, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde) The searches were conducted at the properties of five contractors who had allegedly submitted bogus documents to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) related to silt dumping work, officials said. The investigation is based on an FIR registered by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in May, in which 13 people and entities were booked for allegedly causing the BMC a wrongful loss of ₹65.54 crore. Earlier, on June 6, the ED had carried out searches at 18 locations across Mumbai, Kochi and Thrissur in connection with the investigation. The locations searched included the residential and/or office premises of actor Dino Morea and his businessman brother Santino Morea, BMC engineer Prashant Ramgude, civic contractor Bhupendra Purohit, alleged intermediaries Jay Joshi and Ketan Kadam, and Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd, a Kochi-based company that rented machinery and equipment for the desilting work. The ED had also questioned the Morea brothers in June, claiming they were associates of alleged intermediary Kadam. The brothers have denied all the allegations of their involvement in the case. On June 7, the ED said that its investigation and search operations had, prima facie, indicated that the accused people and others allegedly colluded to form a cartel intending to manipulate BMC's tenders related to desilting the Mithi River. 'This action effectively conferred a monopoly in [the] award of desilting contracts of Mithi River and caused payments at inflated rates for desilting works, resulting in undue gains to the contractors and associated parties, thereby causing financial loss to the public exchequer,' the agency had said in a statement. These undue financial gains were concealed by layering them through certain shell companies by the accused persons and others, the agency added. So far, during its searches, the ED has seized ₹7 lakh in cash and frozen 22 bank accounts/fixed deposits and a demat account. The total amount seized or frozen is more than ₹1.25 crore. Certain digital devices and incriminating documents were also seized that appeared to be relevant for further proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, according to the ED.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
No evidence: All 7 acquitted in '08 Malegaon blast case
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday acquitted all the seven people charged in connection with a bomb blast in Maharashtra's Malegaon town in 2008, saying the evidence against them did not inspire confidence and that it would be unsafe to base convictions on these grounds. Former BJP MP Pragya Thakur, one of the seven acquitted in the case (PTI) The high-profile order – which came nearly 17 years after six people were killed and 95 injured in the blast during the last namaz of the day at a public compound on September 29, 2008 – cleared former Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur, 55, and Lt. Col Prasad Purohit, 53, who was an officer with the Indian army. 'Terror has no religion, as no religion promotes violence,' said special NIA judge AK Lahoti while pronouncing the acquittal. The five others who were exonerated, beside Thakur and Purohit, were retired army officer Ramesh Shivaji Upadhyay, 73, Pune-based businessman Samir Sharad Kulkarni, 53, Purohit's purported close associates Ajay Eknath Rahirkar, 56, and Sudhakar Omkarnath Chaturvedi, 53, and Sudharkar Dhar Dwivedi, also known as Swami Amritananda Devtirth, 56, a self-proclaimed Shankaracharya. 'Mere suspicion cannot take the place of real proof,' the court said, adding that in the absence of any evidence, the accused persons deserve the benefit of doubt. In its order, the trial court said there was no evidence to show that Purohit had brought the RDX from Kashmir as claimed in the charge sheet. The court also found no evidence to prove that the bomb strapped to a motorcycle and seized from the spot belonged to Thakur. 'The sadhvi had become a sanyasi (ascetic) two years before the incident, and had distanced herself from all material possessions,' the court said while explaining why the two-wheeler's ownership could not be attributed to the former MP from Bhopal. The accused thanked Lahoti and their lawyers, and Thakur said that she was able to survive the ordeal only because she was a 'sanyasi' (ascetic). 'This is not my victory. This is no individual's victory. This is the victory of bhagwa (saffron), bhagwan (god) and Hindutva,' she said after the court explained the verdict in Hindi. Advocate Shahid Nadeem, who represented the blast victims, accused NIA of not prioritising their concerns, and said they would file an appeal in the high court after reviewing the judgment. The politically sensitive case was part of a larger bouquet of terror incidents in the late 2000s dubbed by investigating agencies at the time as 'saffron terror' cases. Almost every one of those cases – including the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts, the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast and the 2007 Ajmer Sharif bombing – have since collapsed in court. The verdict also sparked a political controversy with the BJP demanding an apology from the Congress, which was in power at the Centre and in the state when the blasts and the prosecution began. Two RDX bombs strapped to the seat of an LML Freedom motorcycle went off during the 'eesha namaz' at 9.35pm on September 29, 2008 in the Muslim-dominated town, roughly 200km from Mumbai. Six died and 95 were injured. This was the second terror attack in Malegaon. On September 8, 2006, on the day of Shab-e-Baraat, four bombs had gone off at the crowded Hamidia mosque complex killing 31 and injuring 312 others. The blast was investigated by two different agencies – first by the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and then by the NIA from 2011. According to the ATS, the blast was the handiwork of an extreme Right-wing group led by Purohit, Upadhyay and Dwivedi. In its charge sheet, the agency claimed that Purohit, who at the time served in the Indian Army's Military Intelligence unit, had in February 2007 formed Abhinav Bharat, an organisation with an intention to convert India into a Hindu rashtra named Aryavart. It also arrested Thakur, a native of Lahar in the Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, and two others in October 2008, alleging that the motorcycle belonged to her. On January 20, 2009, the ATS arrested 11 people and filed a charge sheet, invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). In April 2011, the case was transferred to NIA, a specialised federal agency established after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Throughout this time, the accused alleged that the ATS case was fabricated and their statements were coerced after torture. In May 2016, NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet, exonerating Thakur and five other accused, and recommending their discharge from the case. NIA also dropped MCOCA charges against all the accused, citing its questionable application by the ATS. The court order on Thursday junked the ATS's argument, holding that the charge of the conspiracy being hatched at meetings of Abhinav Bharat could not be proved as the witnesses had turned hostile. Forty prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the trial. 'Key witnesses pertaining to the conspiracy have not supported the prosecution,' said the special judge. The court said the material from the blast spot was collected in the absence of experts. The court also disregarded the charge that Abhinav Bharat had collected funds from the public and used it to further its illegal activities. 'It is true that Purohit was the trustee and (Ajay) Rahirkar was its treasurer. But the evidence on record shows that Purohit had used the funds for his personal work like construction of a house, payment of insurance premium etc. There is no evidence to show that the funds were used for terror activities and therefore UAPA was not applicable,' the court said, and further stated that invalid and defective sections of the UAPA had been applied in the case. After the verdict was read out, celebrations broke out at the neighbourhoods of Thakur and Purohit. The BJP hailed the decision. 'The court verdict has exposed the conspiracy with supporting evidence. Congress leaders must now publicly apologise to Hindus for defaming them by associating them with so-called saffron terrorism,' said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Congress criticised the BJP. 'They (the BJP) polarise everything, there was no good prosecution, good evidence was not collected, how should this matter be let go?' asked Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
