Meghalaya Police names property dealer, security guard as co-accused in Raja Raghuvanshi’s murder
SHILLONG, June 22: A special investigation team (SIT) of the Meghalaya Police arrested two persons on Saturday and Sunday in Madhya Pradesh in connection with the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, a senior officer said.
With the fresh arrests, the total number of people nabbed in the honeymoon murder case has risen to seven.
An Indore court on Sunday remanded the duo — Silome James, a property dealer, and Balbir Ahirwar, a security guard — in the transit custody of Meghalaya Police for seven days.
The SIT on Saturday night arrested Silome James for concealing a box belonging to Raghuvanshi’s wife and prime accused, Sonam, who hid it in a flat in Indore after the murder on May 23.
According to police, Silome is the lessee of a building at Heera Bagh Colony in Indore where Sonam had stayed and kept the jewellery and other items she took with her after the incident.
Later, the SIT nabbed a security guard, identified as Balbir Ahirwar alias Balla, from his native village in Ashok Nagar district of Madhya Pradesh around 2 am on Sunday. He was posted on duty at the property.
The box is believed to have contained key evidence linked to the murder, according to sources.
The arrested property dealer led the SIT to the place where he had disposed of all the items of the box by burning, the officer said.
A member of the SIT said that Sonam’s boyfriend Raj Kushwaha owned a firearm and this was kept at the property along with jewellery and a laptop.
At the site where James had burnt the box, there were no signs of the pistol, laptop or any of the jewellery belonging to Raja, he said, adding that a forensic team had also visited the spot and collected all available evidence.
The flat was rented out to murder co-accused Vishal Singh Chauhan by James, who runs a property management firm in Indore, they said.
On June 13, James told reporters that Chauhan approached him on May 30 and rented the flat for Rs 17,000 per month, signing a formal agreement.
However, when the Meghalaya Police later searched the flat, it was found vacant, as per the sources.
Sonam stayed in the flat for several days on return from Meghalaya, before eventually surrendering to police in UP on June 8, the sources said.
Raja was allegedly hacked to death by Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, and Anand Kurmi using two machetes near a secluded parking lot close to the Weisawdong Falls in Sohra on May 23, the day the couple was reported missing.
Sonam, accused of conspiring with her alleged lover to kill her husband, surrendered on June 8 before the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, while four other accused, included Raj Kushwaha, were arrested from different locations in MP.
The five are currently in judicial custody and lodged at a jail in Meghalaya.
(With agency inputs)