‘He mourned Raja like a brother’: Mother sobs as police say Sonam Raghuvanshi's lover Raj Kushwaha son planned honeymoon murder; here's what he said

INDORE: "No, not our boy..." The family of Raj Kushwaha - the 21-year-old arrested for conspiring with Sonam Raghuvanshi and murdering her husband Raja on their honeymoon in Meghalaya - is struggling to believe he is capable of such a heinous crime."He can never do something like this," insists his mother Chunni Bai, 52, wiping her damp eyes with her pallu for the umpteenth time. "Why, he cried for an hour after coming back from Raja's funeral, and said he'd have died if he had seen Raja's body," she told TOI on Tuesday.Police, however, say he planned Raja's murder with cold-blooded ruthlessness. And that he inserted himself into the grief of the two families when the couple was missing and at Raja's funeral where he was seen holding up Sonam's father.Raj worked in billing in Sonam's family business. Police say she and Raj had a relationship, which is why the two plotted to have Raja murdered by three of Raj's close friends. The Raj family can't believe any of this. For the last two days, they have stayed huddled inside their rented 200 sq ft room that is locked from outside. Every time a vehicle pulls up in front or a police siren is heard, Raj's 15-year-old sister faints, Chunni Bai says.

Raj's sister Suhani, 18, told TOI: "After the funeral, Raj was very tense about Sonam, worrying when she would be found. We were all anxious. Our younger sister even fasted praying for her well-being."Little did they know that soon after Sonam was found, Raj would be in handcuffs, accused of a crime that has shocked the nation.On Sunday, following the funeral, Raj left and never returned. When the family called him, he said he was at (co-accused) Vishal's house.

And this his phone was switched off. Police would arrest him at Vishal's home.The family insists they barely knew Sonam. "We only met her once during a Garba when Raj took us. Many of his colleagues were present, including Sonam," said Suhani.Raj's family lives on the first floor of a modest two-storey house. The building, though old, is cared for, with a narrow staircase that creaks underfoot. The room is barely 10 ft by 20 ft, and it serves as the entire world for Raj, his mother, and his two sisters.

A small slab in one corner is their kitchen, and a simple bed - Raj's bed - takes up most of the space. His sisters and mother sleep on the floor.Life had once been better for the family, when Raj's father Ramnazar owned a small fruit and vegetable shop. They had dreams of buying their own house, but then he had a brain tumour and died. His illness drained their resources, and they were forced to move into this small room, paying a monthly rent of Rs 3,500.Raj quit school in class 10 and found work in the local cloth market. "People know him as a kind boy," his mother says. "Once, he gave away his slippers to a barefoot vegetable vendor. Now, none of the neighbours talk to us. If someone stood by us, it'd be easier to bear this pain," said Suhani.The fact that his family doesn't believe he is capable of such violence only proves how cunning he is, say police. The circumstances, the evidence, Somam's calls to Raj from Meghalaya soon after his murder point at only one thing - that Raj has blood on his hands, investigators say.