Indore tourist murder: Sonam, four accused to be produced in Shillong court

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 10, 2025

Sonam Raghuvanshi and four other accused involved in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi will be produced before the court tomorrow, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police (SP) Vivek Syiem said on Tuesday.

“We have got a transit remand from Indore (Madhya Pradesh) for six days and Ghazipur (Uttar Pradesh) for three days. The Indore party will be arriving tomorrow morning and the Gazipur party will be here by late night. We will be producing all of them in court tomorrow and thereafter we will be taking a police remand for the investigation – that is the next course of action,” Syiem told reporters.

Sonam was arrested from Uttar Pradesh after she surrendered at the Nandganj police station in Ghazipur district while the four others Raj Khuswaha (21), Akash Rajput (19) from Lalitpur, Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) and Anand Kuli (23) were arrested from Indore.

The SP said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will take a call as to when they would take all the accused to Weisawdong fall for reconstruction of the crime scene.

Raja was murdered on May 23 and his highly decomposed body was recovered from a deep gorge at Weisawdong on June 2.

“After they (all accused) come here then we will take a call when we will do the reconstruction of the crime scene probably after we have taken their first examination and all that thereafter we will be taking them there for reconstruction of the crime scene. First is examination and then reconstruction – the whole SIT will decide on that,” Syiem said.

Further, the SP also expressed confidence to complete the chargesheeting of the case on record time.  

“Yes, I am hoping to chargesheet the case on record time. The SIT is committed and in seven days we got adequate evidence to arrest her. In the coming days we will collect more evidence and ensure we have a robust case,” he stated.

The SP said that the murder was pre planned but whether they were sure about the spot (Weisawdong) is yet to be confirmed.

“According to Sonam, she has never been to Shillong but some reports say she has been there. We are yet to confirm that and after investigation we will know if she chose Weisawdong because she knew the place..,” he added.

According to him, all the accused left Sohra after committing the murder and disposed of their phones and sim cards.

“But it is a fact that Sonam was in communication with Raj on that day and Raj was in touch with the three assailants,” he stated.

Further, the SP said that police are yet to confirm the amount paid to the assailants for murdering Raja.

“Various amounts are coming in but we will come to the conclusions once the accused are here and when we actually get to the facts of the matter,” he added.

Asked, Syiem said that the CCTV footage has helped the investigation a lot and thus leading to the arrest of the accused.

“That is why we have urged the homestays and places where there is high footfalls they should have CCTV as small pieces of evidence become very helpful.

That little footage which showed them together became evidence and it was seized also. Apart from that, there was other evidence also to zero down on them,” he added.