Raja Raghuvanshi murder case: Meghalaya cops arrest two persons in MP

Shillong/Indore: A special investigation team (SIT) of the Meghalaya Police arrested two persons in Madhya Pradesh in connection with the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, a senior officer said.

With the fresh apprehensions, the total number of people arrested in the case rose to seven An Indore court remanded the duo- a property dealer and a security guard- in the transit custody of Meghalaya Police for seven days.

The SIT on Saturday night arrested a property dealer for concealing a box belonging to Raghuvanshi's wife Sonam, who hid it in a flat in Indore after the murder last month.

"Meghalaya Police SIT arrested one Silome James from Bhonrasa toll-gate in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh while he was trying to flee to Bhopal around 7.30 pm on Saturday. He is a property dealer and lessee of a building at Heera Bagh Colony in Indore where Sonam had stayed and kept the jewellery and other items she took with her after the incident," East Khasi Hills district SP Vivek Syiem told PTI.

Later, the SIT nabbed a security guard, identified as Balla Ahirwar, from his native village in Ashok Nagar district of Madhya Pradesh around 2 am on Sunday. He was posted at the property.

James and Ahirwar were produced before a court in Indore which remanded them in the transit custody of Meghalaya Police for seven days, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Rajesh Dandotiya said.

The box is believed to have contained key evidence linked to the murder, according to sources.

The arrested property dealer led the SIT to the place where he had disposed of all the items of the box by burning, the officer said.

A member of the SIT said that Sonam's boyfriend Raj Kushwaha owned a firearm and this was kept at the property along with jewellery and a laptop.

At the site where James had burnt the box, there were no signs of the pistol, laptop or any of the jewellery belonging to Raja, he said, adding that a forensic team had also visited the spot and collected all available evidence.

The flat was rented out to murder co-accused Vishal Chauhan by James, who runs a property management firm in Indore, they said.

On June 13, James told reporters that Chauhan approached him on May 30 and rented the flat for Rs 17,000 per month, signing a formal agreement.

However, when the Meghalaya Police later searched the flat, it was found vacant, as per the sources.

Sonam stayed in the flat for several days on return from Meghalaya, before eventually surrendering to police in UP on June 8, the sources said.

Indore-based transport businessman Raghuvanshi married Sonam on May 11 in Indore and the couple left for their honeymoon in Meghalaya on May 20.

Raghuvanshi went missing on May 23 and his mutilated body was recovered on June 2 from a deep gorge near a waterfall in the Sohra area of East Khasi Hills district.

Raja was hacked to death by three men using two machetes near a secluded parking lot close to the famous Weisawdong falls in Sohra on May 23, the day the couple was reported missing.

Sonam, accused of conspiring with her alleged lover to kill her husband, surrendered on June 8 before the police in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district, while four other accused have been arrested from different locations in MP and UP.

The Meghalaya Police had earlier arrested five persons in connection with the murder -- Sonam, her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha and the latter's three friends Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi.

The five are currently in judicial custody and lodged at a jail in Meghalaya.

The case is being probed in detail by the SIT of Meghalaya Police.