Meghalaya govt moves Supreme Court against Sonam Raghuvanshi's bail

The Meghalaya government has moved the Supreme Court against the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the 2025 Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, arguing that the relief was granted on a procedural lapse arising from a clerical error in the arrest warrant.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu agreed on Thursday to hear the state's plea on Friday after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an urgent listing. Mehta argued that the Meghalaya High Court had erred in granting bail to Sonam, who is accused of murdering her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon in the northeastern state.

According to Mehta, the bail was granted because the grounds of arrest were not fully supplied to Sonam at the time of her arrest. He told the Supreme Court that the issue stemmed from a provision that was wrongly cited due to a typographical error.

The Meghalaya Police, in its plea seeking cancellation of Sonam's bail, has argued that the wrong section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) mentioned in the arrest warrant was merely a clerical error in one document. The state has contended that granting bail on such technical and procedural grounds would "undermine public faith in the justice system."

The police have further claimed that Sonam committed a premeditated murder and later concealed her whereabouts and lied about her movements. The plea also states that around 90 witnesses are yet to be examined and argues that delay in the trial cannot be a ground for granting bail.

Sonam, a resident of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, was arrested in June last year in connection with the murder of her businessman husband Raja Raghuvanshi.

The couple went missing while vacationing in Meghalaya's Sohra area on May 23, 2025. Raja's body was later recovered from a deep gorge on June 2, 2025. The Meghalaya Police have alleged that Sonam conspired with hired assailants to kill her husband for financial gain.

On June 29, the Meghalaya High Court upheld a trial court order granting bail to Sonam after the trial court had granted her bail on April 27. Both the trial court and the High Court had flagged procedural lapses by the investigating agency and criticised the state police.

The High Court held that citing the wrong section of law in the arrest warrant amounted to a failure to communicate the grounds of arrest. It observed that the preparation of the grounds of arrest reflected a "total non-application of judicious mind" and found that the document did not clearly specify the actual charges against Sonam.

"It is evident that such preparation was made without any application of mind... and nowhere is found any specific allegation or information as to what are the actual charges against her," the High Court observed.

"If this is the manner in which the intimation of the grounds of arrest is made, the same reflects a total non-application of judicious mind on the part of the arresting agency," it added.

The High Court dismissed the Meghalaya government's petition seeking cancellation of the bail, holding that there were no grounds to exercise its inherent powers to revoke the relief granted by the trial court. The state has now challenged that decision before the Supreme Court.

- Ends