Wife and her alleged lover arrested for orchestrating murder of man on honeymoon
A 25-year-old woman who went missing after her husband was found murdered on their honeymoon in northeast India has surrendered to police – and is now the prime suspect.
Initially suspected to have been abducted or killed, Sonam Raghuvanshi is now accused of directing three men to kill her newlywed husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, 30. The alleged killers have been arrested.
Investigators suspect Ms Raghuvanshi's love affair with a man named Raj Kushwaha, 21, to be the motive for the murder.
Mr Kushwaha has been arrested as well.
The newlywed couple from Indore in Madhya Pradesh went missing four days into their honeymoon in the northeastern state of Meghalaya.
After a week-long search, police recovered Mr Raghuvanshi's body from a Meghalaya gorge, his throat slit and valuables missing.
Investigations by the Madhya Pradesh police have revealed, they said, that the bride likely orchestrated the killing with her alleged lover.
According to the investigators, Ms Raghuvanshi allegedly shared live location details of the couple's movements with hired killers while on their honeymoon.
Mr Kushwaha stayed back in Indore, they said, ensuring that he was seen at Ms Raghuvanshi's family home during the time the crime was committed so as to create an alibi.
He was even spotted with Ms Raghuvanshi's grieving father at the murdered groom's funeral, the police said. 'The accused allegedly planned to kill Raja in a distant place and dump his body in an inaccessible area. Kushwaha allegedly stayed put in Indore so that he had an alibi,' a senior police officer told The Indian Express, adding that he was in constant touch with Ms Raghuvanshi in the days before the murder, 'which raised suspicions'.
On Monday, Meghalaya police chief Idashisha Nongrang confirmed that Ms Raghuvanshi had surrendered at the Nandganj police station in northern Uttar Pradesh state's Ghazipur.
'One person was picked up from Uttar Pradesh and another two accused were apprehended from Indore,' he was quoted as saying by the BBC, referring to the alleged killers. 'Sonam surrendered at the Nandganj police station and was subsequently arrested.'
At a press conference later on Monday, superintendent of police Vivek Syiem said a fourth man had been held in Meghalaya that morning in connection with the case. While he did not explain a motive for the murder, he identified Ms Raghuvanshi as 'the main suspect'.
Mr Kushwaha met Ms Raghuvanshi two years ago while he was working in her family's plywood business and she was in HR. He lived near her family home but later moved to Nandbagh, the locality where the three men arrested for killing the groom stayed.
According to the investigators, it was Mr Kushwaha who hired Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi to carry out the killing.
A breakthrough in the investigation came when a local guide reported seeing Ms Raghuvanshi walking behind her husband and the three alleged attackers near the murder site.
Mr Raghuvanshi's mother has alleged that her daughter-in-law planned the honeymoon trip and took Rs 900,000 (£7,790) from Mr Raghuvanshi to pay for it. She also persuaded Mr Raghuvanshi to carry along expensive jewellery over the family's objections.
She also claimed her son had expressed doubts about the wedding, saying Ms Raghuvanshi was not showing any interest in him. When they confronted her about it, Ms Raghuvanshi blamed work and began engaging with her would-be husband.
The mother also suggested Ms Raghuvanshi could have arranged money for the killers – a claim now under investigation.
Ms Raghuvanshi's father, Devi Singh, told ANI she had reached a roadside eatery in Ghazipur and borrowed a phone to call her brother, who then informed the police.
Mr Singh claimed his daughter 'somehow managed to escape her captors' and insisted she was innocent. He also accused the Meghalaya police of 'making up stories' and appealed to Indian home minister Amit Shah for a federal investigation.
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