Meghalaya honeymoon murder: SC to examine if arrest memo typo can justify bail

The Supreme Court on July 9 said it may refer to a larger bench the legal question of whether a typographical error in an arrest memo is sufficient to invalidate an arrest and justify granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of murdering her husband during their honeymoon in Meghalaya.

A partial working day bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Shree Chandrashekhar indicated that it would closely examine whether the Meghalaya High Court was justified in granting bail to Raghuvanshi on the ground that the arrest memo contained an incorrect statutory provision.

Appearing for the Meghalaya government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the error was purely clerical and should not override the seriousness of the offence. He submitted that the accused had been supplied with the grounds of arrest and that the mistake involved the mention of an incorrect legal section in the arrest memo.

The Meghalaya High Court had upheld the bail granted by the trial court after observing that the arrest memo cited Section 403 instead of Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with punishment for murder. The High Court described the error as reflecting a "total non-application of judicious mind" by the investigating agency.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court observed that it would have to reconcile conflicting judicial precedents on whether written grounds of arrest are mandatory and whether defects in an arrest memo could render an arrest illegal.

"We will consider this matter at length. We will decide whether this requires to be referred to a larger bench," Justice Misra said.

Mehta stressed that the gravity of the alleged offence should outweigh a technical mistake in documentation.

"This is a very serious case. It was a premeditated murder. She killed the husband on a hill and threw the body into a gorge," the Solicitor General submitted.

The bench directed the Meghalaya Police to produce legible copies of the original documents supplied to the accused at the time of arrest to verify the information that had been communicated.

"If this ground is not sustainable, then the bail order goes," Justice Misra orally observed.

On July 3, another Supreme Court bench had declined to stay the Meghalaya High Court's order granting bail to Raghuvanshi.

Sonam Raghuvanshi, a resident of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, was arrested in June last year in connection with the murder of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi. The couple had gone missing while vacationing in Sohra, Meghalaya, on May 23, 2025. Raja's body was recovered from a deep gorge on June 2, and investigators have alleged that Sonam conspired with hired assailants to kill him for financial gain. The Meghalaya government has challenged the bail order before the apex court.