Meghalaya Police codenames case as ‘Operation Honeymoon’
SHILLONG, June 10: The Special Investigation Team of Meghalaya Police is endeavouring to prepare a watertight case against Sonam Raghuvanshi and other assailants who murdered Indore tourist Raja Raghuvanshi in Sohra on May 23.
The SIT arrested Sonam, Raj Kushwaha, Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput, and Anand Kurmi from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in an operation they have codenamed “Operation Honeymoon”.
East Khasi Hills SP, Vivek Syiem on Tuesday informed that the SIT will prepare a watertight case against all the persons involved in the crime and the charge sheet will be filed soon.
“We will collect more evidence against them and SIT is committed to filing the charge sheet soon,” Syiem said.
The SIT brought Sonam, who surrendered in Ghazipur in UP, to Shillong late Tuesday night after being granted a three-day transit remand. The four others will reach Shillong by Wednesday afternoon.
“We will produce them in the Court on Wednesday and thereafter we will take them in police remand for the further investigation,” the SP said.
After different levels of examination of the accused persons, the SIT will take a call on taking the accused to Sohra for reconstruction of the crime.
Syiem said soon after committing the crime, Sonam boarded a taxi from Mawkdok and thereafter took a tourist taxi to Guwahati and hopped from one train to another train. Sonam claims that she went to Indore directly which is yet to be confirmed.
The other accused reached Guwahati in a tourist taxi and boarded a train to Indore without staying in Guwahati, the SP said.
According to Syiem, a team of 15-20 personnel of Meghalaya Police was overseeing the case. They were assigned different areas and they had to amass a lot of data and information and they had adequate evidence before zeroing on the culprits.
Admitting that CCTVs were very handful in the case, he said that CCTV footage showed the accused persons together and that became one of the evidence.
Informing that the three assailants stayed in another home stay nearby in Nongriat, Syiem said that Sonam and Raja met there before going to Wei Sawdong where the crime took place.
As of now, it is not yet confirmed as to how much money was paid to the contract killers and it will be confirmed once the accused persons are brought here, Syiem said.
He also made it clear that the crime was committed in Sonam’s presence.
The SP also revealed that post marriage, Sonam and Raj Kushwaha were in touch with each other even as he informed that on the day of the crime, Sonam was in communication with Raj who was in touch with the three assailants.
It is learnt that Sonam has claimed that she has never been to Shillong before but the claim will be verified by the police, he said.
Syiem asserted that police received tremendous support from the Meghalaya government, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Home Minister Prestone Tynsong, DGP Idashisha Nongrang, Chief Secretary DP Wahlang and also from the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh Police.
ADDITION FROM SOURCE
A reliable source disclosed that police knew on June 3, a day after they found the body of Raja Raghuvanshi, that Sonam was involved in the honeymoon murder.
Raids were conducted at several places, and the profiles of the three accused were checked. It was then that Sonam Raghuvanshi was seen with the accused, 10 kilometres away from the site where her husband was killed.
The arrested accused told cops that it was Sonam who asked them to hit Raja Raghuvanshi and that he was killed in front of her, the source said.
“All the accused followed the newlyweds to Guwahati on May 21 and to Shillong on May 22. They killed Raja the next day,” the source added.
They bought the murder weapon from a shop outside a hotel in Guwahati. As per the preliminary autopsy report, he was hit twice, once each on the back and front of his head.
Sonam’s alleged lover Raj did not travel to Meghalaya but police sources suggest he did the planning behind the scenes and was in touch with Sonam.
Sonam had come to Meghalaya only to murder her husband, the source said.
The couple did not take any photos of themselves in Meghalaya and that’s what made the cops suspicious, the source said.
“Akash’s shirt was found at the crime scene, soaked in blood. Sonam had given her raincoat to Akash, which was found 6 km away from the crime scene. This was done to mislead the investigation. When Anand Kurmi was caught, he was wearing the same clothes that he was wearing at the time of the incident,” the source added.
After returning to Indore, Sonam met her Raj, the source said.
She stayed at a rented room in Indore for a day, and then she was dropped by a driver to Uttar Pradesh.