'Operation Honeymoon': Meghalaya Police to produce Sonam, other accused before court on Wednesday

A special investigation team of the Meghalaya Police will produce Sonam Raghuvanshi and the other accused before a local court here on Wednesday, officials said.

Meghalaya Police, which codenamed the investigation as 'Operation Honeymoon', had collected evidence from the residences and other places frequented by the accused in Indore and Ghazipur on Tuesday, they said.

"We have collected additional evidence from the homes of Sonam and other accused involved in the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi in both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh," a senior police officer said.

The SIT has secured a six-day remand for the accused persons from Indore and three days for Sonam, the prime accused in the murder plot.

Sonam has arrived at LGBI Airport in Guwahati and will be taken to Shillong by Meghalaya Police, an airport official said.

She is scheduled to arrive here around midnight.

The SIT has been tasked with "reconstructing the events leading to the murder" and ensuring that it is a "water-tight case", the police officer added.

According to the SIT, Sonam took a local taxi to reach Guwahati before boarding a train.

Her accomplices – the three arrested accused – also took a tourist taxi to the station in Guwahati, where they boarded a train to Indore.

"Sonam actually took a local taxi from Mawkdok and then hopped on a local train from Guwahati. She kept changing trains on her way to Indore," East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem told PTI.

Mawkdok is a tourist spot located near Sohrarim, where the couple's rented scooter from Shillong was found abandoned.

Sonam, a 24-year-old woman from Indore, had allegedly orchestrated the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in the scenic town of Sohra in Meghalaya, state DGP I Nongrang said on Monday, revealing the details of the shocking crime that triggered a manhunt across three states.

Raja was killed by men allegedly hired by Sonam, who went 'missing' and surfaced in UP's Ghazipur where she surrendered at the Nandganj police station after the arrest of three assailants Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, and Raj Singh Kushwaha, in overnight raids, police said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the police force has “solid evidence” of the involvement of the tourist’s wife in the crime.

“A lot of evidence and facts are coming to light. It took the police a few days to put together the pieces and missing links. But, ultimately, the links point to Sonam (Raghuvanshi’s wife),” Sangma said.

The couple, who got married on May 11 in Indore and went to Meghalaya on their honeymoon, disappeared on May 23, hours after checking out of a homestay at Nongriat village, 20 km from where his body was found 10 days later on June 2.

Raja's relatives identified the body through a distinctive tattoo on his right hand. A woman's white shirt, a strip of medicine, a part of the LCD screen of a mobile phone, and a smartwatch were also seized at the spot. (PTI)