A honeymoon-turned-murder-mystery rocked India last week when Indore resident Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered along with a murder weapon from a gorge below Wei Sawdong Falls in Meghalaya. While search for his missing wife Sonam was still on, she surrendered before police on Monday. With Sonam and four other assailants in custody, the police divulged crucial details behind the crime — the motive, planning, and execution.
Here are the five major revelations in the case:
1. 24-year-old Sonam is considered as one of the prime suspects in the case, along with 21-year-old Raj Kushwaha, who is suspected to have been in a relationship with her. Sonam had allegedly hired the men to execute the killing during her and Raja’s honeymoon in Meghalaya.
2. Kushwaha is suspected of having orchestrated Raja’s murder, allegedly with Sonam’s help. Kushwaha was the “handler” of the other three accused — Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), and Anand Kurmi (23). While these three assailants, tasked with killing Raja, tracked the couple down using the location information allegedly shared by Sonam, Kushwaha stayed behind in Indore.
3. Kushwaha was even seen at Sonam’s family home during the time authorities in Meghalaya were searching for the honeymooning couple. After Raja’s body was found and brought back to Indore, Kushwaha was allegedly seen with a distraught Devi Singh, Sonam’s father, during the last rites.
4. Sonam allegedly intended to pass off her husband Raja Raghuvanshi’s murder as a robbery gone wrong in Meghalaya and was planning on living as a widow for some time before trying to convince her family to let her marry Raj Kushwaha, the alleged mastermind of the murder.
5. Kushwaha used to live near Sonam’s family but recently moved to the Nandbagh locality, where the other three accused lived. Kushwaha and Sonam were allegedly in touch constantly in the days before the murder.