Raja Raghuvanshi murder: Sonam, other accused kept in different cells of Shillong police station

Shillong, June 11 (IANS) Prime accused in the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, Sonam Raghuvanshi and four other accused were kept in different cells of the Sadar police station in Shillong after a court on Wednesday sent all five accused to eight days' police custody, sources said. 

Sources said that Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), Sonam’s alleged lover and Akash Rajput (19) were kept in a cell of the Sadar police station, while Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) and Anand Singh Kurmi (23) were kept in another cell. “Police have served a meal to Sonam (wife of murdered Madhya Pradesh tourist Raja Raghuvanshi), and she has taken the meal. She was visibly very calm before and after the production of the court,” the sources said.

According to the sources, several CCTV cameras were installed in the Sadar police stations and all the cells, to closely monitor the behaviour of the accused by the police.

Amid the heavy security arrangements, all the five accused in the sensational murder case were produced before the district and session court in Shillong on Wednesday, 10 days after the body of Sonam’s husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, was recovered on June 2 from a deep gorge below the Wei Sawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang in Sohra in East Khasi Hills district, sending shockwaves across the country.

A police official said that after completion of various medical and legal formalities, the accused were produced before the court with a prayer for their eight-day custody for further interrogation and investigation of the case. The Meghalaya Police, after the recovery of Raja’s body, formed Special Investigation Teams and launched ‘Operation Honeymoon’, and several teams went to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and with the help of the police of the two states, successfully arrested the five accused.

All five accused would now face further investigation under the jurisdiction of the Meghalaya Police. Sonam was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the murder of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi (29), during their honeymoon tour in Meghalaya’s Sohra-Cherrapunji areas of the East Khasi Hills district.

Days after her husband's body was discovered, Sonam surrendered before police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur on June 7, and was taken to Patna by road, then flown to Kolkata and onward to Guwahati. From Guwahati airport, she was brought to the Sadar police station in Shillong by road late on Tuesday night. The other four accused were brought to Shillong on Wednesday.

Picture Courtesy: IANS