Raj mastermind, Raja’s killers planned to murder a woman and pass body as that of Sonam: Police

Shillong: The killers of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi had a plan to murder any random woman and burn her body to pass it as that of his wife Sonam so that she would be able to be in hiding for a few more days till the truth is known, a senior police officer of Meghalaya said here on Thursday.

The police also found out that Raj Kushwaha, boyfriend of Sonam, was the mastermind in the murder plot and she is the co-conspirator.

On the first day of interrogation of Sonam, her suspected boyfriend Raj and three others, who were arrested in connection with the killing of the Indore-based businessman, 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.

The conspiracy to eliminate Raja was hatched in Indore, shortly before his wedding with Sonam on May 11, and the mastermind is Raja while the woman had agreed to the plot, East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem told PTI.

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. Police have also arrested her boyfriend Raj Kushwaha and three others – Vishal, Akash and Anand - who, till now, were suspected to have been contract killers.

“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 said.

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 some random woman, put her in a two-wheeler, burn the body and claim that it is 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.

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 before throwing the body in a gorge.

Sonam gave the raincoat she was wearing to Akash as his shirt had a blood spot. They left Weisawdong in 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 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 wherever she is, 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. Once we got a clear picture - as the accused have kept separately- we will gather evidence and reconstruct the crime scene,” Syiem said.

The officer said he is confident that 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.

Deputy Inspector General of Police DNR Marak told PTI that the SIT conducting the probe into the murder is seeking assistance from the Police in Assam and other states to link all evidence in the case.

According to him, the police are verifying if any of them had made a recce of Sohra and the jungles of Nongriat before.