Meghalaya honeymoon murder: Sonam Raghuvanshi watched coldly as trio slaughtered husband Raja with machete; new chilling details emerge

NEW DELHI: When pushing him off a forest cliff failed, the attackers used a machete to kill 28-year-old Raja Raghuvanshi. His wife, Sonam, stood nearby and watched, police say.The honeymoon turned deadly in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills, where police allege Sonam conspired with her lover and three others to kill her husband.“They tried to push him off a cliff in a forest first, but it didn’t work out,” said an officer in Indore. “Instead, the attackers used a machete bought in Guwahati and hacked Raja to death in a remote area, as Sonam watched.”Sonam vanished after the May 23 murder and resurfaced on June 9, dazed and silent, at a roadside eatery 2,000km away in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Police now say she was never abducted — but returned to Indore, met her lover Raj Kushwaha in a rented room, and plotted her next move. “She travelled by train, avoided CCTV, and chose confusing routes to mislead us,” said a senior officer in UP. “We have footage of her getting off a Guwahati-Patna train.” At a shelter in Ghazipur, she refused doctors, avoided questions, and claimed memory loss. “No grief, no tears, just sleep,” a staffer recalled. Investigators believe the plan was set in motion just six days after the wedding, when Sonam returned to her parental home and reconnected with Raj.

The murder plot was finalised on May 17 at a restaurant in Indore. By May 21, the men were in Shillong, allegedly shadowing the newlyweds. Sonam sent live locations and lured Raja to isolated spots for photos, police say. The murder weapon — a machete — was bought in Guwahati. Phone records contradict her claims of amnesia. Her silence and behaviour, police say, point to cold calculation, not trauma. “She didn’t disappear — she disappeared on purpose,” said an officer in Indore.