Sonam Raghuvanshi, the Indore woman accused of plotting her husband’s murder during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, being produced at a district court, in Ghazipur, Monday, June 9, 2025.
Credit: PTI Photo
Sonam Raghuvanshi, a 24-year-old woman from Indore, allegedly orchestrated the murder of her husband -- Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in the scenic town of Sohra in Meghalaya, state DGP I Nongrang said on Monday, revealing the details of the shocking crime that triggered a manhunt across three states.
Raja was killed by men allegedly hired by Sonam, who went "missing" and surfaced in UP's Ghazipur where she surrendered at the Nandganj police station after the arrest of three assailants -- Akash Rajput (19), Vishal Singh Chauhan (22), and Raj Singh Kushwaha (21) -- in overnight raids, police said.
Here we take a look at other such cases when a spouse was killed during honeymoon:
Simranjeet Kaur & Simran Pal Singh Bhullar (Kufri, Shimla 2010)
Simran Pal Singh Bhullar pushed his wife Simranjeet Kaur off a cliff during their honeymoon in Shimla in 2010. Bhullar fled to Chandigarh and was later arrested from Panchakula.
Mussoorie Honeymoon Murder (Dehradun region, 2011)
32-year-old Sachin Mishra killed his wife at Mussoorie and tried to pass it off as an accident. Under police interrogation, he admitted that he had struck his wife on the head with a rock before dumping her body in a forest.
He had cited his inability to get over his "forced" first divorce with his wife and the quarrels it caused between him and his newlywed bride as the reason for the murder.
Nainital Honeymoon Murder (Uttarakhand, 2018 – Conviction in 2024)
In 2018, Saddam Hussain of Noida pushed his wife into a ditch in Nainital, Uttarakhand. He initially tried to claim that his wife got scared by a snake and accidentally fell into a gorge.
However, his harassments of his wife over dowry demands made the latter's family suspicious and they subsequently filed a police complaint.
A Nainital court convicted Hussain of the murder in 2024.
Anni Dewani (South Africa, 2010)
The 2010 murder case of Anni Dewani, a Swedish woman of Indian origin, captured international attention. Dewani and her British husband Shrien had gone on their honeymoon to South Africa.
Initial reports claimed their taxi was hijacked and only the driver and Shrien had survived. However, the driver later said that the hijack story was cooked up by Shrien, who had allegedly planned the murder of his wife.
After an intense legal battle, Shrien was, however, acquitted of the charges as judges observed that the prosecution's case was "riddled with inconsistencies".