Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of killing her husband Raja Raghuvanshi while they were on honeymoon in Meghalaya, had reportedly plotted the murder with her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha just seven days after their wedding on May 11. And, it was the murder weapon that led the Meghalaya Police to widen their area of investigation.

According to Indore additional commissioner of Police Rajesh Dandotiya, Sonam and Kushwaha planned the murder on May 18. A day later, Sonam convinced her husband Raja to take her to honeymoon the next day. Sonam and her boyfriend hired Vishal Chauhan, Anand Kumar, and Akash Rajput to execute the meticulously planned murder, the ACP said.

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While things were going as per Sonam’s plan, she and her hired killers made a critical mistake, which eventually led to their arrest.

Initially, when Sonam and Raja’s parents alerted the police, a search operation was launched to locate the couple. The police scoured the region with the help of locals and recovered Raja’s body and the murder weapon near the site.

It was that murder weapon that indicated foul play, prompting police to extend their investigation across state lines. The weapon was not common in the area, and police got suspicious that someone from outside the state could be involved.

According to the Meghalaya police, after the recovery of the murder weapon, they looked into the call records of Sonam. She was in touch with one of the killers, and her last location was also found near the accused.

The police dispatched an SIT team to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in search of Raj Kushwaha, with whom Sonam was in a relationship, and the hired killers. Meanwhile, Sonam appeared at a dhaba in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and was subsequently taken into custody.

“The first person arrested was Rajput from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh. The second was Chauhan from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The third was Kushwaha, also from Indore,” East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem said at a press conference in Shillong.

However, Sonam has reportedly denied killing her husband during the initial interrogation, claiming it was a case of kidnapping.

The crime’s chilling nature has stunned Raja’s and Sonam’s families. While Raja’s family is demanding justice and full disclosure of the murder motive, Sonam’s father has claimed his daughter was innocent and has been framed. He has called for a CBI inquiry into the case, a demand echoed by members of Raja’s family as well.