'I was kidnapped, did not kill anyone': What Sonam Raghuvanshi told authorities

Sonam Raghuvanshi, the 24-year-old Indore woman accused of masterminding her husband’s murder during their honeymoon, was taken into custody on Monday from 'Kashi Dhaba', located on the Varanasi-Ghazipur highway, according to Ghazipur SP Iraz Raja. Police allege that Sonam plotted the killing of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, during their trip to Meghalaya by hiring contract killers to carry out the act. The couple had married on May 11 and departed for their honeymoon on May 20. They were reported missing three days later. Raja’s body, discovered on June 2 near Weisawdong Falls in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district, bore fatal injuries from sharp weapons. Following her arrest, Sonam was taken to Sadar Hospital for a medical check-up before being transferred to a government-run one-stop crisis centre in Ghazipur, which supports women facing abuse or distress by providing legal and healthcare assistance. Officials at the centre, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Sonam denied any involvement in the murder. “When she regained consciousness in the afternoon, she claimed she had been kidnapped and denied killing anyone,” one of them told Hindustan Times. Her father, Devi Singh Raghuvanshi, also defended her innocence, insisting she had no reason to harm her husband. “My daughter could never do such a thing. Their marriage was with the full approval of both families. Last night she reached a dhaba in Ghazipur and contacted her brother. The police arrived there and picked her up,” he said.

Meanwhile, Meghalaya DGP I Nongrang confirmed that Sonam had orchestrated her husband's murder in the tourist destination of Sohra. He shared that her arrest followed the capture of three young men — Raj Singh Kushwaha (21), Akash Rajput (19), and Vishal Singh Chauhan (22) — who were allegedly hired to execute the killing. Rajput was the first to be arrested, picked up from Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh. Chauhan and Kushwaha were apprehended in separate operations in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, according to East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem. After being detained, Sonam was formally arrested by Meghalaya Police around 6:30 pm on Monday. Authorities have begun the legal proceedings for her transfer to Meghalaya for further investigation. The three alleged accomplices arrested in Madhya Pradesh were granted a seven-day transit remand by a district court in Indore and have already been taken to Meghalaya for questioning.

The case has shocked the nation, with investigators piecing together a grim sequence of events. After checking out of a homestay in Nongriat on May 23, just hours later, the couple vanished. Raja’s body was eventually found in a deep gorge roughly 20 kilometers away. His family confirmed his identity through a tattoo on his right hand. Additional items recovered from the scene included a white women’s shirt, a strip of medication, a broken LCD mobile screen, and a smartwatch — all of which are being examined for forensic evidence. As public interest in the case grows, questions remain about the motive behind the crime and how a romantic honeymoon turned into a premeditated act of betrayal and violence.