logo
Indore Couple's Wedding Video Emerges, A Gold Rush, Then Murder In Hills

Indore Couple's Wedding Video Emerges, A Gold Rush, Then Murder In Hills

NDTVa day ago

Indore:
Hours after a newly married Indore woman surrendered before the police after allegedly getting her husband killed, a video of their wedding has emerged, showing a cheerful Raja Raghuvanshi applying sindoor on the forehead of Sonam, dressed in a red Banarasi saree.
Curiosity has been at peak over the honeymoon murder and the couple whose married life was cut short by an unplanned trip to Meghalaya, and an extramarital affair angle that cops claim was behind the gruesome killing in the hills.
After Raja's murder and Sonam's surrender, the circumstances that followed her wedding appear to point to something eerie, if not criminal.
Raja and Sonam were married on May 11, and by May 20, they had set out for their honeymoon. While the former's body was found in a gorge on June 2, the latter is now in custody. The police have claimed that Raja was hacked to death with a machete.
Raja's brother, Vipul Raghuvanshi, has claimed the couple's initial plan was to visit the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati to seek blessings, but a sudden change in plan landed them in Shillong.
The bookings were done by Sonam Raghuvanshi, but her family was not aware of the plan.
Sonam left for the airport from her paternal home, wearing her wedding jewellery. Her husband, too, had jewellery on him that included a diamond ring, chain, and bracelet worth over Rs 10 lakh. Officials suggest that her mother-in-law had questioned the need for carrying so much gold on a honeymoon.
Raja and Sonam's sudden trip to Shillong raised eyebrows, but it wasn't the first time for the latter. Sonam's family had visited Shillong before, her mother had told her in-laws.
Heavy bank transactions by Sonam have also emerged in the murder probe, in which a financial angle could provide a fresh motive, while the extramarital affair angle gathers curiosity.
Indore police officials suggest Sonam had shared their location with the alleged killers and confirmed that she used to have long conversations with Raj Kushwaha, with whom she had an affair.
A relative of the victim claimed Raj worked for Sonam and that they spoke a lot over the phone.
The Indore Police probe now hinges on the couple's call records and Sonam's questioning, while Meghalaya Police investigation has focused on the CCTV footage. Based on the footage, a total of five persons were arrested.
Sonam was arrested in Ghazipur after she tried to contact her family from a dhaba in Nandganj, while Akash Rajput, 19, was rounded up from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh. Raj Kushwaha, 21, Vikash Singh Chauhan, 20, and Anand Kurmi were arrested in Madhya Pradesh's Indore and Sagar districts.
Officials suggest it was Anand who first attacked Raja and that Sonam had planned to make it look like an accident.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Car showroom manager held for deceiving bizman of Rs 1cr
Car showroom manager held for deceiving bizman of Rs 1cr

Time of India

time27 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Car showroom manager held for deceiving bizman of Rs 1cr

Bhubaneswar: Infocity police here on Monday arrested a car showroom manager for allegedly deceiving a businessman of Rs 1 crore under the pretext of facilitating a luxury vehicle purchase. Police have identified the accused as Sambit Panda, 32, who resides in Sailashree Vihar. In 2024, the victim, Rohit Roshan Mohanty, a local businessman, filed a complaint in a local court stating that Panda had collected Rs 1 crore from him for the car purchase, but reneged on the agreement. Following the court's instructions, police registered a case on Sept 7, 2024. During investigation, police came to know that the victim came in contact with the accused in 2023. Panda offered to assist Mohanty in acquiring the luxury vehicle at an optimal price. After receiving the substantial sum from the prospective buyer, the accused stopped communication with him. "When the victim requested for his money back, the accused issued severe threats. The accused evaded arrest for several months," said the police officer.

Sonam Planned To Pass Off Raja's Murder As Robbery Gone Wrong, A Lie Became Her Undoing
Sonam Planned To Pass Off Raja's Murder As Robbery Gone Wrong, A Lie Became Her Undoing

News18

time27 minutes ago

  • News18

Sonam Planned To Pass Off Raja's Murder As Robbery Gone Wrong, A Lie Became Her Undoing

Last Updated: Prime accused in her husband's murder case, Sonam Raghuvanshi allegedly planned to live as a widow for a while before trying to convince her family to let her marry Raj Kushwaha With her husband Raja Raghuvanshi out of the way, Sonam Raghuvanshi allegedly planned to live as a widow for a while before trying to convince her family to let her marry Raj Kushwaha. Now, Sonam Raghuvanshi and Raj Kushwaha are in custody and the prime accused in the horrific murder case of Raja Raghuvanshi, who never returned from his honeymoon trip to Meghalaya. His wife, who allegedly wanted to stage his murder as a robbery gone wrong, was caught in a lie – the undoing of best-laid plans, in this case a bone-chilling murder plot. The alleged plan started unravelling soon after the police got hold of the first clue – a phone call by Sonam to her mother-in-law Uma Raghuvanshi. The special investigation team (SIT) probing the murder got access to an audio call between the two women, in which the accused informed the other woman about a fasting for Raja's good health. Later, when the investigators tracked the owner of the hotel where the couple was staying, they found that this was, in fact, a lie as she had eaten a meal that day. According to a report published by The Indian Express, the SIT grew suspicious and decided to mount technical surveillance on her. This led to the discovery that she was in constant touch with Kushwaha, police said. 'We found that she had consumed food. We also found that she was in touch with the main accused, Raj Kushwaha. The plan was to pass this off as a robbery gone wrong," Superintendent of Police, East Khasi Hills, Vivek Syiem told The Indian Express. Raja and Sonam, both residents of Indore, had gone missing during their honeymoon in Meghalaya. Raja's body was later found in a gorge in Sohra in the East Khasi Hills district on June 2. Late on Sunday (June 9), Sonam surrendered before the police in Ghazipur district, while four accused, including Kushwaha, were arrested from different areas of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Investigators said Sonam left her home with jewellery and also asked her husband to wear gold to pass this off as a robbery gone wrong. Raja's mother told reporters that her son was wearing gold worth more than Rs 10 lakh, on a request from his wife. 'This is what our investigation has found. The couple had not booked return flight tickets. They had initially made plans to visit a temple in Guwahati. Then they chose to visit Meghalaya, and this very spot must have been chosen to commit the crime since a tourist recently went missing here and his body was found in the gorge after he suffered a fall. We are still investigating why the Meghalaya trip was planned," Syiem was quoted. First Published: June 10, 2025, 18:02 IST

NDTV Ground Report: The Spot Where Raja Raghuvanshi Was Thrown Into Gorge
NDTV Ground Report: The Spot Where Raja Raghuvanshi Was Thrown Into Gorge

NDTV

time29 minutes ago

  • NDTV

NDTV Ground Report: The Spot Where Raja Raghuvanshi Was Thrown Into Gorge

New Delhi: Three men, and possibly a woman, stood overlooking a steep gorge near the Wei Sawdong Falls in Meghalaya 's East Khasi Hills on the afternoon of May 23. They were not admiring the view, though it is spectacular. They had just murdered Raja Raghuvanshi and were dumping his body. Raghuvanshi, 30, was found at the bottom of that gorge on June 2, his body hacked into and his death the result, the police believe, of a nefarious scheme allegedly hatched by his wife (of less than a fortnight) Sonam Raghuvanshi and her lover, Raj Kushwaha, with help from three 'contract killers'. All five - details of whose plotting include a clandestine meet at a cafe, one-way tickets to Meghalaya, and the purchase of an axe (the murder weapon) online - have been arrested. NDTV visited the waterfall viewpoint to understand what transpired at 'Land's End', such as it was for Raja Raghuvanshi, and was given a firsthand lesson in why recovering the Madhya Pradesh-based businessman's body was so difficult, even when the cops knew where to look. Thirty seconds was all Nature needed to cover the gorge in mist, making it impossible to see into the valley or across it, to the mountains on the other side, and rising to cover even the cliff edge. In fact, were it not for a waist-high metal barrier around the edge, unwary souls might take a step too far off the cliff and plummet to a rocky doom, falling maybe a thousand feet. The deep gorge, changeable weather, and the remote location all conspired to make the police's job very difficult indeed; drones, in fact, were sent into the gorge to find Raghuvanshi's body. And, as if to illustrate that point, the weather changed again while NDTV was at the spot, the mist rolling back partially to reveal the foliage lining the gorge while still hiding most of the drop. And these reasons fed into the killers' selection of this spot, the police have indicated, for their dastardly deed. The cops believe it was here, or somewhere nearby, that Raja was murdered. The logic is quite unescapable; it would have been impossible, dangerous even, for the killers to be spotted carrying Raghuvanshi's body to the dumping site if he had been killed elsewhere. And, as NDTV retraced his footsteps on his final day, it soon became quite apparent the murder was pre-meditated, for the trekking route they were on was a less-travelled road, meaning there were fewer chances his death or his killers would be seen. What Happened In Meghalaya? On May 20, Raja and Sonam left for their honeymoon in Meghalaya. They had a one-way ticket only. The three 'killers' followed them on their journey, dispatched to Guwahati first by Raj Kushwaha to buy the axe and then to Shillong, where they stayed at a hotel near the couple's homestay. The picture of honeymoon bliss, Raja and Sonam visited tourist hotspots in the beautiful northeastern state over the next two days, including the 'living roots' bridge in Nongriat. A dazed Sonam Raghuvanshi surfaced in UP on June 8, two weeks later. They were seen on the morning of May 23 by a local guide, Albert Pde. That was at 10 am. That was the last time Raja Raghuvanshi was seen alive. Pde's sighting was critical, since he told the police he saw Raja and Sonam, and three other men, who were speaking in Hindi. The three men Pde saw were most likely the killers. What happened between then and June 2, when the body was found, is still unclear, although sources close to the investigation have offered NDTV some details, including Raj Kushwaha's alleged role in orchestrating the murder and Sonam's "kill him" signal to the murderers. What happened after June 2 is unclear also. Sonam disappeared. There are reports that she was spotted in Indore after her husband's death, possibly to meet with her lover, who had stayed away from the northeast, but there is no confirmation of this. What we do know is that Sonam Raghuvanshi surfaced in UP on June 8.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store