Source IANS
All accused in the high-profile Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, including prime accused Sonam Raghuvanshi, are scheduled to be produced before a local court in Shillong today, police officials confirmed.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem said Meghalaya Police had secured a six-day transit remand for the accused arrested in Madhya Pradesh and a three-day transit remand for those apprehended in Uttar Pradesh. The main accused, Sonam Raghuvanshi, was brought to Shillong late Tuesday night, while police teams from Indore are expected to arrive with the remaining accused later today.
The police plan to take the accused to the crime scene to reconstruct the sequence of events after completing legal and procedural formalities. The entire investigation has been dubbed ‘Operation Honeymoon’ by the Meghalaya Police, who stated that a strong case is being built and a chargesheet will be filed soon.
Sonam Raghuvanshi was taken into custody on Monday after she surrendered at Nanganj police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been working in Indore, where the other suspects, Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), Raj Singh Khushwaha (21), and Anand Singh Kurmi (23), were apprehended.
Officials added that the SIT has yet to finalize how many days of police custody they will seek for the accused.
The case gained national attention after the decomposed body of 26-year-old Raja Raghuvanshi, Sonam’s husband, was discovered on June 2 in a gorge near the Wei Sawdong parking lot in Sohra (Cherrapunji), East Khasi Hills district. The couple had arrived in Shillong on May 20 for their honeymoon and visited popular tourist spots in Sohra on a rented two-wheeler.
According to police, the couple stayed overnight at Shipara Homestay in Nongriat village on May 22. A local guide informed investigators that three men had accompanied the couple during their stay, believed to be the co-accused. Raja was allegedly murdered on May 23.
After the crime, Sonam and her accomplices reportedly fled to Guwahati and took a train to Indore. She later escaped to Uttar Pradesh and was believed to be attempting to cross into Nepal, as Ghazipur lies roughly 200 km from the border.
The murder came to light when locals found the abandoned two-wheeler in Sohrarim village on May 24. Meghalaya Police, under significant pressure to crack the case, launched the SIT and dispatched teams to both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. All suspects were arrested within a week with the support of local police in the respective states.
Police say the killing was premeditated and that evidence collected so far supports a watertight prosecution.
