Madhya Pradesh tourist may have been killed with machete in Meghalaya: Police

A raincoat, also believed to belong to the couple from Madhya Pradesh, was recovered from Mawkma village, a few kilometres away from the gorge where Raja's body was found on Monday, cops said.

Shillong: Police have recovered a bloodstained machete, which they believe has been used in the murder of Raja Raghuvanshi, who went missing along with his wife while honeymooning in Meghalaya, an official said on Wednesday.

A raincoat, also believed to belong to the couple from Madhya Pradesh, was recovered from Mawkma village, a few kilometres away from the gorge where Raja's body was found on Monday, he said.

"We have recovered a bloodstained weapon, a relatively unused machete (dao), during the search of the area yesterday. The search and rescue teams have also recovered a raincoat from Mawkma today," SP of East Khasi Hills Vivek Syiem told PTI.

Mawkma is located between the spot where Raja's decomposed body was found and Sohrarim, where the scooter used by the couple was found abandoned.

The search for Raja's wife, Sonam, was continuing, with the NDRF leading the efforts, officials said.

Police said the raincoat they recovered could provide more clues in the investigation.

The search teams are using drones, sniffer dogs, and mountaineers in the search operation.

The couple arrived in Mawlakhiat village on May 22 on a rented scooter. They trekked over 3,000 steps down the gorge to visit the famous living root bridges in Nongriat village, where they stayed the night, according to police.

They left the homestay the following morning. On May 24, their scooter was found abandoned outside a cafe along the road from Shillong to Sohra.

"Raja's family identified the body with the help of a distinctive tattoo on his right hand, reading 'Raja and a lady'. A white shirt, a strip of tablets, part of a smartphone's screen, and a smartwatch were seized at the spot," the SP said.

Raja's brother V Raguvanshi told PTI, "Since my brother's gold rings, a gold chain and his wallet are missing, we suspect it is a murder. We urge the authorities to let the CBI conduct an inquiry into this." The post-mortem examination was being conducted at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences near Shillong.

Syiem said the murder case registered was being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by an SP-level officer and assisted by four DSP rank officers.

Sohra, also known as Cherrapunji, has been receiving heavy rain, which affected the search and rescue operations, he said.

The area recorded 500 mm of rain between May 29 and 31, which is equivalent to Mysore's annual rainfall, a weather department official said.

Earlier this year, Hungarian tourist Puskas Zsolt went missing soon after he started trekking to the living roots bridge. His body was found dead 12 days later. Medical reports indicated that he died due to a fall.