SHILLONG, July 13: The East Khasi Hills Police on Monday termed the grant of bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, one of the prime accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case, as a setback to the investigation, but said it would not derail the trial.
East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem said the bail was granted due to a typographical error in the arrest memo prepared in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, where officers mistakenly mentioned Section 403 instead of Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with murder.
He said multiple police teams from Meghalaya had been deployed across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to apprehend the accused. The error occurred while preparing three arrest-related documents.
Syiem said Raghuvanshi is complying with all court conditions and appearing as required. He maintained that the case remains strong.
“Nonetheless the trail will go on and this is a setback on the investigation. But we have not lost the war. We will look forward for the trail,” he said.
The SP added that all required documents have been sent to Advocate General Amit Kumar.
The development comes after the Supreme Court indicated that the Meghalaya government’s appeal against the bail order may be referred to a larger Bench due to conflicting judgments on whether grounds of arrest must be furnished to an accused in writing.
The Bench, comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Shree Chandrashekhar, observed that merely citing legal sections in the arrest memo may not satisfy the constitutional requirement of informing an accused of the grounds of arrest.
