The disappearance of a couple on honeymoon, husband’s body in a ditch and wife’s surrender – the mystery over the “disappearance" of Indore’s Sonam and Raja Raghuvanshi ended on June 9. But then emerged the new angle – the suspected lover, Raj Kushwaha, who materialised his wife’s alleged plan to eliminate the husband.
From ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ to ‘Sonam Bewafa Hai’, the drama has intensified in the past 24 hours. However, several questions remain. How did Sonam and Kushwaha meet? How long was the affair? How was her wedding to Raja fixed? How was the murder planned?
News18 brings you the timeline of the sordid saga that began two years ago.
Sonam’s father, Devi Singh Raghuvansh, used to run a plywood business with an annual turnover of Rs 12-15 crore. With his paralysis, the business is now run by his son and Sonam’s brother, er Govind. Kushwauseduse used to work in the billing department as a supervisor on a salary of Rs 20,000 a month, while Sonam joined the HR department two years ago. Reports claim that is how they met and eventually got close.
Kushwaha, who was 20, five years younger than Sonam, used to call her Didi in public to avoid suspicion among co-workers and her family.
Kushwaha used to live near Sonam’s family, but had recently shifted to the Nandbagh area, where the other suspects also lived.
The Raghuvanshi community has a tradition of matchmaking. They gather at a spot on the day of Ram Navami and submit the details or biodata of their children on a slip of paper. The details are then available for community members, who get in touch with the match they find appropriate. This is how Sonam’s wedding was fixed to Raja Raghuvanshi, 30.
They got married on May 11. Raja was part of the joint family’s transport business with an annual turnover of Rs 8-10 crore.
Hindustan Times reported how Raja told his mother, in his days of his wedding day, that Sonam was not interested in him. “He said she was not showing any interest. I asked her directly, but she said she was busy with office work. After that, she started talking to him more. She made all honeymoon plans too," said Uma Raghuvanshi, Raja’s mother.
Sonam plotted the murder along with Kushwaha three days after her marriage, India Today TV reported. In her chat with Kushwaha, Sonam told him that she did not like her husband getting intimate with her, according to sources.
She also told Kushwaha that she had kept a distance from Raja even before marriage. In the chat, she allegedly spoke about her plan to kill her husband.
According to Bhaskar English, on May 16, Sonam got on a six-hour phone call with Kushwaha from 9 pm to 3 am. This is where they planned the finer details, according to police.
Bhaskar English reported that on May 17, Kushwaha met his childhood friends — Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, and Anand Kurmi, all residents of Indore’s Nandbagh — at a cafe at the city’s Super Corridor, where police suspect the murder plan was finalised.
After their wedding on May 11, the couple were to go to Kashmir for their honeymoon. The April 22 terror attack and the resultant India’s Operation Sindoor from May 7-10, however, forced them to cancel their plan.
Sonam then suggested they go to Meghalaya. According to Amar Ujala, Raja and his family refused, but Sonam said she had booked the tickets for May 20.
While Sonam headed to Meghalaya, Kushwaha stayed back, but remained in touch.
According to Raja’s mother Uma, Sonam allegedly took Rs 9 lakh from Raja for the honeymoon and also carried some jewellery. Raja and Sonam had told family they would visit the Kamakhya Temple in Assam and return soon. But they never booked return tickets, said Raja’s brother, Vipin. “We don’t know who decided on Meghalaya," he said.
Investigators believe Sonam shared location updates with Kushwaha. Kushwaha kept in touch with Sonam through WhatsApp calls, believing media reports that Sonam was taken to Bangladesh would divert suspicion. The weapon, a traditional ‘dao’, was reportedly bought in Guwahati.
May 20: The couple reached Guwahati.
May 21: Raja and Sonam reached Balaji Guest House in Shillong, Meghalaya. Akash, Anand, and Vishal boarded a train to Guwahati via Delhi and reached Shillong on May 21. The trio, whom Sonam knew, booked their rented vehicle from the same vendor and followed the couple, posing as tourists from Indore.
May 22: In the morning, they rented a scooter from Keating Road and came back to the guesthouse. Before leaving, they told the manager they would return by May 25 or would call if they needed the room again. Riding the rented scooter, the couple reached Mawlakhiat village in East Khasi Hills in the evening. They then trekked down over 3,000 steps to Nongriat village to see the living root bridges, where they stayed for the night, according to police.
May 23: They checked out of Shipara Homestay and came back to Mawlakhiat without their guide. After leaving the village, they went missing from the Sohra (Cherrapunji) area. A search was launched. Albert Pde, a local guide in Mawlakhiat, told PTI he had seen the couple with three other male tourists around 10 am on May 23, while they were climbing back up from Nongriat to Mawlakhiat.
May 24: The village head of Sohrarim in East Khasi Hills told police about a scooter found abandoned in their area.
May 25: Police tracked down the owner of the scooter, who confirmed the Raghuvanshis had rented it.
June 2: Raja’s semi-decomposed body was found at the bottom of a gorge near the Weisawdong Falls parking area at Riat Arliang. He was identified by a ‘Raja’ tattoo on his right hand. The police also found a machete, a woman’s white shirt, a strip of tablets, part of a phone screen, and a smartwatch.
June 4: A blood-stained raincoat, believed to possibly belong to the missing tourist, was discovered near Mawkma Road in Sohra.
June 9: Sonam was located and arrested. The DGP said Sonam surrendered to the police in UP’s Ghazipur, while the three alleged attackers were caught. Raj Kushwaha was arrested later.
