All the accused in the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case including Sonam Raghuvanshi, who is the prime accused in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi, would be produced before a court here on Wednesday, officials said on Tuesday.
East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police (SP), Vivek Syiem, said that Meghalaya Police has got six days transit remand for the accused persons arrested in Madhya Pradesh and three days transit remand for the accused persons arrested in Uttar Pradesh.
He said that the Meghalaya Police's Indore party would leave on Wednesday morning and the main accused Sonam Raghuvanshi reached Shillong late on Tuesday night. "After various levels of examination and completion of necessary formalities, all the accused would be taken to the crime spot for reconstruction of the crime," the district police chief told the media.
The Meghalaya Police named the entire operation as 'Operation Honeymoon'. The IPS officer said that the police are building a watertight case against all the accused persons as they have strong evidence and the case would be charge sheeted soon.Sonam Raghuvanshi was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Meghalaya Police on Monday after she voluntarily surrendered at the Nanganj police station in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh.
A separate SIT team, which is making a preliminary investigation in Indore, would be bringing the other accused persons in the case -- Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), Raj Singh Khushwaha (21) and Anand Singh Kurmi (23) on Wednesday to Shillong. Another police official said that the SIT has not yet decided on how many days it would seek custody of the accused from the court.
Stating that Meghalaya Police was under tremendous pressure to solve the murder case, the Superintendent of Police said that after the recovery of the decomposed body of Raja Raghuvanshi on June 2, the SIT was formed and the investigation started. Within seven days, two Meghalaya Police teams were sent to Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
"With the support of the police in the two states, we were able to arrest all the accused involved in the pre-planned crime," the police official said. Raja and Sonam Raghuvanshi got married on May 11 and arrived in Shillong on May 20 for their honeymoon.
A day later, the couple went to Sohra-Cherrapunji areas of the East Khasi Hills district by a hired two-wheeler. As part of their honeymoon, the couple stayed overnight in Shipara Homestay at Nongriat village -- home to the famed living double-decker root bridge on May 22.
A local tour guide told the police that Raja and Sonam were accompanied by three male tourists whom police believed to be Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, and Anand Singh Kurmi. Superintendent of Police Syiem said that Raja Raghuvanshi was murdered on May 23.
His decomposed body was found on June 2 from a deep gorge below the Wei Sawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang in Sohra. Sonam, together with three others, after allegedly committing the murder of her husband left Sohra and boarded a train to Indore from Guwahati, around 100 km from Shillong.
According to police officer Syiem, Sonam went to Indore and stayed at a rented place and then fled to Uttar Pradesh. Police suspect that Sonam and the other accused were trying to flee to Nepal and so reached Ghazipur from where the Nepal border is around 200 km.
The murder of Raja Raghuvanshi came to light after locals found an abandoned two-wheeler, which the couple had hired from Shillong for four days, on May 24 at Sohrarim village between Shillong and Sohra Road.