Before Raja’s murder, Raj planned to murder woman, pass body as that of Sonam: Police

The killers of Indore-based businessman had a plan to fake Sonam’s death by burning someone else’s body beyond recognition and passing it off as hers, a Meghalaya police officer said.

In yet another revelation in the Raju Raghuvanshi murder case, the Meghalaya police on Thursday exposed a cold-blooded and meticulously plan that Raj Kushwaha, accused of orchestrating the killing of Raja Raghuvanshi during his honeymoon in Meghalaya last month, had made in February to stop his wedding to Sonam.

As per a report by PTI, the killers of Indore-based businessman had a plan to fake Sonam’s death by burning someone else’s body beyond recognition and passing it off as hers, a Meghalaya police officer said. The police also found out that Raj was the mastermind in the murder plot and Sonam, a co-conspirator.

Indian Express reported that these plans failed to materialise when Kushwaha, allegedly with Sonam’s help, co-opted three others to murder Raja during his honeymoon with Sonam in Meghalaya, the police alleged.

“This plan was hatched way before the marriage in Indore. The main mastermind is Raj. Sonam played along and was part of the plan,” East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem was quoted by Indian Express as saying.

“Right from the month of February, they had thought of ways to make Sonam disappear. They tried to hatch a plan in which it would seem that Sonam was washed away in a river. Another plan was to kill someone, burn the body and then claim that it was Sonam’s. But all of these things didn’t fructify,” the officer said.

On the first day of interrogation of Sonam, Raj and three others, who were arrested in connection with the killing, also revealed that she fled from Meghalaya in a burqa and reached the Madhya Pradesh city using various modes of transport like taxi, bus and train, PTI reported.

"The conspiracy to eliminate Raja was hatched in Indore, shortly before his wedding with Sonam on May 11, and the mastermind is Raj while the woman had agreed to the plot," Syiem was quoted by PTI as saying.

A few days after the wedding, Raja (29) and Sonam (24) had come to picturesque Sohra in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district and went missing on May 23. His body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls on June 2, while a search continued for Sonam.

She emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away, in the early hours of June 9 and surrendered. The police had also arrested her alleged boyfriend, Raj Kushwaha and three others – Vishal, Akash and Anand - who, till now, were suspected to have been contract killers, the PTI reported added.

“The three young people were friends, and one of them is a cousin of Raj. It was not a typical contract killing. Yes, the plan was to kill and they did it as a favour to their friend Raj,” Syiem told PTI.

Raj had given them Rs 50,000 for the expenditures, he said. The planning started in February in Indore and they had thought of ways about how Sonam would disappear after the killing of Raja.

“One plan was to make people believe that she would wash away by a river. Another plan was to murder any woman, burn the body and claim that it was of Sonam. However, none of the plans fructify,” the police officer said.

The group had come a few days before the newly-wed couple reached Assam on May 19 and they had initially planned to eliminate Raja somewhere in Guwahati.

As that did not work for some reason, Sonam planned to go to Shillong and Sohra, and according to understanding, all met at Nongriat, the officer said.

Syiem said they started together for Weisawdong Falls, and there all three hit Raja with a machete they bought in Assam and killed him in front of Sonam between 2 pm and 2.18 pm on May 23 before throwing the body in a gorge.

Sonam gave Akash the raincoat she was wearing as his shirt had a blood spot. They left Weisawdong on scooters, and Akash threw the raincoat later as it too had blood stains. They also abandoned the two-wheeler hired by Sonam and Raja at a place, the SP said.

The police recovered the raincoat and the two-wheeler when Sonam was thought to have been missing.

“Raj had given Vishal a burqa which he has handed over to Sonam. She wore it, went to the Police Bazaar and took a taxi to Guwahati. From Guwahati, she reached Siliguri (in West Bengal) on a bus. From there, she took buses to go to Patna and Arah and boarded a train for Lucknow. From Lucknow, Sonam took a bus and reached Indore,” he said.

In the meantime, Meghalaya media interviewed a tour guide who said he had seen Sonam and Raja with three people.

Raj told Sonam to leave Indore and emerge somewhere in Siliguri and claim herself as a victim of abduction. But on June 8, when Sonam had left Indore, two police teams from Meghalaya reached UP and Madhya Pradesh in civil dress.

“When the first arrest (Akash) was made in UP, Raj panicked and told Sonam to call up her family and tell them she just escaped from an abduction gang. That's how this whole thing came to light in Ghazipur,” Syiem said.

They had thought that Raja's body would not be discovered as it was remote and the police enquiry would take one to two months. So she thought of playing the victim card.

“We are recording their statements. We are questioning them. We will gather more evidence and reconstruct the crime scene,” Syiem said. The officer said the police are confident to file a charge sheet in the case within the mandatory 90 days.

All five were remanded to eight days of police custody on Wednesday, the report added.