Sonam confessed to husband’s murder plot, but mastermind still unclear: Meghalaya Police

Sonam Raghuvanshi confessed to being part of the conspiracy to kill her husband Raja during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, and accused Raj Kushwaha of being the mastermind of the Indore-based businessman’s murder, a senior police officer said on Thursday.

On the other hand, Kushwaha, Sonam’s suspected boyfriend, put the blame for orchestrating the murder on her, Deputy Inspector General of Police DNR Marak said on Thursday.

Sonam and Kushwaha are among the five people arrested in connection with the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi, whose decomposed body was recovered from a gorge in the Sohra area of East Khasi Hills district on June 2.

“Sonam confessed to being a part of the conspiracy to kill her husband, but we are yet to establish who the mastermind of the plot is. Both Sonam and Raj are blaming each other,” Marak told PTI.

He said the investigation has started to unearth the conspiracy.

“There are inconsistencies in the statements collected individually from all the accused persons. We are also investigating the amount of money Sonam promised to pay to the hitmen and how much she had already paid,” Marak said.

According to the senior officer, the police are verifying if any of them had made a recce of Sohra and the jungles of Nongriat before. The couple had stayed at a homestay in Nongriat.

None of the accused so far admitted to having conducted a recce, he said.

The SIT conducting the probe into the murder is seeking assistance from the police in Assam and other states to link all the evidence in the case.

The three hired killers from Indore stopped over for a night in Guwahati and procured from there a machete that was later used to kill Raja, he said.

The three and the couple arrived in the Meghalaya capital, Shillong, around the same time before they started for Sohra, about 65 km from here, last month, Marak said.

Raja (29) and Sonam (24) went missing in the hills of Sohra on May 23, while Raja's body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls on June 2.

A search continued for Sonam, who emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away, in the early hours of June 9 and surrendered. Police have also arrested her boyfriend, Raj Kushwaha and three contract killers.