2 days ago
Grisly Meghalaya honeymoon horror or Modi govt anniversary? TV news chased Sonam all week
A 'grisly' plot in which a 'bride doomed husband to death' ( NDTV 24×7 ) has 'shaken entire Hindustan' ( Times Now Navbharat) and dominated the news cycle after the 'Killer wife' Sonam ( India Today ) turned up at a roadside dhaba in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh on Monday—approximately 17 days after she and her husband disappeared during their honeymoon in Meghalaya. Husband Raja Raghuvanshi's body was discovered on 2 June.
If that murder is a 'Honeymoon Horror' ( CNN-News 18 ) that involves ' Pati, Patni aur Woh' , then all the better.
Since then, we have been treated to non-stop details of 'Love, Shaadi, Dhoka' (News 24) that involved 'mastermind' Sonam or her boyfriend Raj (ABP News) and 'supari' killers.
So many elements to a diabolical murder plot are just too irresistible – and television news channels didn't resist: They ignored even Prime Minister Narendra Modi's completion of his 11th year in office, to chase after the alleged culprits, criss-crossing from Indore to the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya and finally, to Ghazipur.
TV's favourite murder mystery
The television `bahurani ki kahani' has only gotten juicier in the telling with each passing day. The 'Lapata Lady', as Times Now Navbharat chose to call Sonam, became the 'Killer Wife' (India Today) in the matter of a few hours.
It unfolded to include Sonam, her husband Raja, and her alleged lover Raj, who was at least five years younger than her—or so Aaj Tak reported. Then there were the two families of the bride and bridegroom, both of whom threw open their homes to TV reporters. One Times Now reporter entered the newlyweds' bedroom where 'I love u' was written in balloons hanging on the wall.
'This is heartbreaking (for Raja's family). The same woman they had embraced as a daughter was a sinister killer,'' declared the Times Now reporter.
It was really like a TV soap opera: family members of Sonam, Raja and Raj had the TV microphone thrust at them.—and agreed to speak. Reporters asked Raja's family, 'What punishment do you want for Sonam?'—by Wednesday, his mother and brother were calling for the death penalty.
Sonam's father, mother, were interviewed by TV news channels, The father claimed his daughter was 'seedhi-saadhi ladki' (Aaj Tak). Raj's sister was spoken to —in between tears, she said her brother treated Sonam like a 'sister', called her 'Didi' (Zee News).
Raja's mother became a barometer of how the story changed right before our eyes. On Monday, she was careful in her choice of words—she praised Sonam for being 'loving' and said the couple was happy.
By Wednesday, she was saying that Sonam was capable of doing anything and that she had probably performed 'black magic' on Raja. His murder was part of a 'sacrifice', she suggested. The mother also claimed that Sonam's family was into tantra. (CNN News 18)
When Sonam's brother visited Raja's mother on Wednesday, he was attacked with TV microphones and questions—it was a terrible invasion of privacy. 'Was she having an affair?', 'Who planned the murder of Raja?', 'What is Raj's relationship with Sonam?'—the questions went rat-a-tat-tat at him, ceaselessly. 'Broke all ties with her…'' he said, when he could get a word in.
By Wednesday afternoon, we were being given a blow-by-blow account of what apparently happened when Raja was murdered. We were told that Sonam was not only present when Raja was murdered but also gave instructions. 'The deviant wife,' as India Today called her, had a Plan B—if the killers failed to murder her husband, she would push him off the cliff. (India TV).
Delicacy is for the fainthearted. Our braveheart news channels jumped right into alleged conspiracy: TV news reported an alleged conversation between Sonam and her lover, Raj, 'Let's kill him…'', 'Make me a widow' (Times Now), 'Maar do…(kill him)' (Republic Bharat).
And by Wednesday evening, TV anchors were seriously arguing over the `kundalis' of Sonam and Raja (Times Now Navbharat).
Also read: TV news is always enthusiastic about a 'war'—India-Pakistan, Putin-Zelenskyy, Kannada-Tamil
Tantric angle
No detail of the case was too small for TV news. They turned up at Patna airport on Tuesday to watch Sonam being escorted by police on her way to Shillong—and began investigating which airline she was flying (Aaj Tak guessed Indigo) and how long the flight would take (NDTV India). 'It will be a late-night arrival,' said the NDTV India reporter.
There were the alleged accounts of 'chats' in which Sonam denied her husband, 'intimacy' until they visited the temple in Meghalaya. We heard lurid details of how Sonam planned the murder before or just after '9 phere', how she contracted the killers—or did Raj contract them? It wasn't at all clear, but that didn't stop TV news from reporting it. There were stories about 'the widow's plan' (Zee News) to marry Raj after a decent interval.
Another story was that Sonam's mother knew or was even involved in the murder plot. One of Raja's brothers told NDTV India that it is '100-70 per cent possible that the mother knew.'
And then there was the 'tantric' angle. Republic Bharat and News 24 reported that Sonam's family believed in tantrism. Republic spoke to a jyotish, Ajay Dube, who said there was 'mangal dosh' in the horoscopes of Raja and Sonam. He added darkly that there seemed to be another woman involved in the murder.
Honeymoon horror
It wasn't just television news: 'Raja, Raj aur Sonam' (India TV) made a splash across daily newspapers and their news websites, too. On 10 June, The Times Of India (Delhi edition) led with it on page 1: 'Honeymoon horror: MP bride, lover got her husband killed in Meghalaya' read its main headline. On the same day, Hindustan Times also carried it on page 1, so did The Indian Express and The Hindu—the latter's report identifies Raj Kushwaha as one of the accused but doesn't mention any love angle between Sonam and him. Odd.
All of them roughly recited the same sequence of events as did television news, but without the references to a 'killer wife' or 'hate story' (India Today) and other juicy descriptions of the plot and murder.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)
