Indore couple case: Preliminary investigation indicates murder could be due to Sonam – Raj love affair: Meghalaya police

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 9, 2025

The state police on Monday indicated that the motive behind the recent murder of a tourist from Indore Raja Raghuvanshi could be due to an alleged affair of his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi with Raj Kushwaha, who was the arrested along with three other assailants from Madhya Pradesh.

“Preliminary investigation indicated that (a love affair angle to the case)….when we had connected the dots, it was actually Raj Khuswaha with Sonam. When they come here that will be confirmed but at this juncture, I will not be able to say what the motive is but it indicates towards that (love affair),” East Khasi Hills District SP Vivek Syiem told reporters.

He informed that all the four accused Khuswaha (21), Akash Rajput (19) from Lalitpur, Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) and Anand Kuli (23) are being produced before the court.

“Our team has left for Uttar Pradesh to arrest Sonam (who had surrendered at the Nandganj police station in Ghazipur district). Two teams have gone on June 8, the raid was conducted yesterday along with UP police and MP police and third team is on its way to cause arrest of Sonam,” Syiem said while adding that the state police has sought the transit remand of all accused persons for bringing them to Shillong for further investigation into the case.

Syiem also confirmed that Khuswala was not in Shillong but is the one who instructed the three assailants – who the tourist guide had mentioned seeing them with the couple on the day they went missing from Sohra – to murder Raja.

Raja and Sonam went missing on May 23, while honeymooning in Sohra and later Raja’s body was found from a deep gorge at Weisawdong falls.

According to Syiem, the autopsy report from the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) had indicated there were two sharp cuts on the head of the deceased – one from behind and one from the front.

Asked, the SP said the arrest was made based on substantial evidence.

“At this juncture, we can say SIT within seven days had actually got substantial evidence and gone down there and zeroed down the culprits. SIT did not just go there and arrest suspects, but SIT went down there with firmed evidence and knew who the culprits were. After doing a lot of homework they went there and with the help of our counterparts, we arrested them,” he added.

Stating that conducting the search operation was a major challenge, Syiem said, “The moment they went missing torrential rain started and the kind of terrain we have out there was not easy. To top it off, we need more robust record keeping, CCTVs as we don’t have any of that – so that was very challenging.”