Honeymoon murder: Why police believe Sonam Raghuvanshi could be actual mastermind

 Mystery shrouds the flat in Indore where Sonam allegedly stayed in after the murder of her husband

Family members of Raja Raghuvanshi, who was allegedly murdered during his honeymoon in Meghalaya, cut out the picture of his wife Sonam Raghuvanshi from a poster of their marriage after she was accused of plotting his murder | PTI

The Week, June 12, 2025 :  The Meghalaya Police, probing the murder of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, are likely to bring his wife and prime accused Sonam Raghuvanshi to their hometown in Madhya Pradesh, where the conspiracy of the crime was hatched, over the next few days.

A Shillong court has sent Sonam (24) and four other accused, including her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha (20), to eight-day police custody.

After the preliminary interrogation of the accused, the investigators suspect that Sonam could be the actual mastermind of the crime and she might have used Kushwaha as a pawn in her game plan, reported Times of India.

They suspect that she may have lured Kushwaha through promise of love, but was planning to elope with someone else. Kushwaha, unaware of her intention, helped her execute the crime and facilitated her unsuccessful escape plan.

Police had earlier claimed that Sonam had returned to Indore and stayed in a flat for three days before travelling to Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. She kept her stay clandestine, even from the co-accused, even as the police were in an all-out search for her in the northeast state. Her family members had launched protests against the Meghalaya government for “laxity” in finding her whereabouts.

Police said when things went out of hand, Sonam decided to flee to Ghazipur and it was Kushwaha who booked the cab for her on June 6. He even made the payments to the cab driver.

Police are yet to trace the flat in Indore where Sonam allegedly stayed after the killing of her husband. 

"We have received information that Sonam came to Indore from Meghalaya (after Raja's murder) and stayed in a rented flat in the city's Dewas Naka area between May 25 and 27. It is likely that the Meghalaya police will bring Sonam to Indore in the next few days and investigate the identification of this place and other evidence on the basis of her information," a Madhya Pradesh police official told PTI.

The body of Raja, an Indore-based businessman, was recovered from a deep gorge in Sohra area in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya on June 2, days after the couple who had gone on a honeymoon to the northeast state, went “missing”.

Sonam surrendered before the UP police on June 9 after police arrested Kushwaha and other three accused—Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi.