New Delhi: Sonam and Raja Raghuvanshi left from Shipara Homestay in Nongriat village for a trek between 5:30 am and 6 am on 23 May. Around the same time, three of the five accused (Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi) also checked out from their place of stay in Nongriat, having reached Cherrapunji in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district the previous day.
By 10 am, the newlyweds on their honeymoon had covered 2,000 steps downhill. This was when a local guide, Albert Pde, spotted the accused talking to Raja. “They were following the couple and struck a conversation with Raja before they killed him,” said a police source.
Sources in Meghalaya police also said Vishal and Akash then allegedly attacked Raja with a machete between 1:30 pm and 2 pm. Sonam, sources said, was the lookout for passers-by.
“They walked with the duo for a few steps before striking and even spoke to Raja. Raja fell on the ground when Vishal hit him. Then Akash hit him again. The four including Sonam then dragged his body and dumped it,” a senior Meghalaya police officer said.
The officer added that Raja’s mother tried calling him between 10 am and 1:30 pm on the day of the murder but his phone was switched off, but a phone conversation took place between Sonam and her mother-in-law around 12.30 pm.
The autopsy report indicates Raja, an Indore-based businessman suffered two blows to the head, one on the front and the other on the back.
His body was found on 2 June, while Sonam was presumed missing until the early hours of 9 June when she surrendered before police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur.
All five accused arrested in the case, including Sonam and her alleged boyfriend Raj Kushwaha, are in the custody of Meghalaya police.
Sonam, said sources, has partially confessed to her role in the murder during interrogation.
Train to Indore, ‘conflicting’ statements
After the murder, the accused travelled to Guwahati in a taxi. They then took a train to Patna, then Siliguri and Indore. “Sonam came to Indore on 25 May and stayed in a flat arranged by Raj Kushwaha. On 27 May, as per Raj’s interrogation, he booked her a cab for Uttar Pradesh, but claims he doesn’t know where all she went to. He said they were scared that someone would notice Sonam,” said the senior officer quoted earlier.
While in Uttar Pradesh, Sonam kept changing her location. She also stayed briefly at a dhaba on the Varanasi-Ghazipur road before surrendering.
Vishal, Akash and Anand, sources said, checked into Ananda Lodge in Guwahati, claiming to be students, on 19 May and left for Meghalaya the next morning.
A second senior police officer from Meghalaya said Sonam maintains she was kidnapped and has been giving ‘conflicting’ statements. “Raja’s family said she took jewellery with her. Probe suggests she must have either promised them (accused) some money apart from the Rs 50,000 paid by Raj before they left for Guwahati. During questioning, Sonam said she gave the jewellery to Raj, and nothing was found on her as well but Raj has denied that she gave him any jewellery as payment for the other men.” The officer added that the police will confront all five accused with one another to address their conflicting statements.
Investigators, it is learnt, suspect Sonam thought she could pass the incident off as a robbery gone wrong followed by a kidnapping. “She thought she would appear and claim she was tortured and kidnapped,” said a third police officer privy to the details of the case.
‘Told Raja she wanted to go to Kamakhya temple’
Sonam and Raja got engaged two months before their wedding which took place on 11 May. They were matched through the community marriage directory. Both families then met and finalised a wedding date about three months ago.
According to the second police source, Raj and Sonam were in constant touch with each other throughout. “We suspect Sonam was convinced that her parents wouldn’t agree for her marriage to Raj Kushwaha as they are from different communities.”
Investigators, it is learnt, suspect that the alleged plot to kill Raja was finalised on 10 May, which is when Raj allegedly spoke to the other accused about it. “Till Sonam and Raja left for Guwahati, the accused had already come up with the plan to kill him. Sonam told Raja she wanted to go to the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati and added about taking the trip to Shillong and Cherrapunji,” said the second police source.
The plan, investigators suspect, was that Sonam would convince Raja to travel to Nongriat where she would keep sharing her location with Raj, who was in touch with the other accused. Raj, it is suspected, stayed back in Indore to maintain an alibi.
“Raj and Sonam discussed how and where it is to be carried out every day after she was married and even when she visited her mother’s house for a post wedding ritual. Raj during interrogation said that while his friends had agreed to help out, they later wanted to backtrack,” the second police source said. The source added that this is perhaps when a discussion on money might have taken place between Raj, Sonam and the other accused.
ThePrint earlier reported how an intact but bloodstained shirt recovered from near Raja’s body and a mangalsutra inside the luggage bag gave police the idea that Sonam is alive and a suspect. Investigators are now trying to piece together a timeline of the murder through CCTV footage, call detail records, eyewitness accounts, testimonies of friends and family, and statements given by the accused during interrogation.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)