Raja Raghuvanshi's family to move SC against bail to Sonam in honeymoon murder case

A day after the Meghalaya High Court upheld the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the main accused in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon last year, Raja's family said on Tuesday that it will move the Supreme Court to seek cancellation of her bail.

The High Court on Monday dismissed the Meghalaya government's petition against the lower court order of April 27 granting Sonam bail. Reacting to the verdict, Raja's elder brother Vipin Raghuvanshi told PTI, "We will appeal to the Supreme Court for cancellation of Sonam's bail and will soon initiate the process of filing the petition."

Vipin also expressed dissatisfaction with the way the prosecution handled the case. He said the family would fight the legal battle for justice on its own and would hire a private lawyer. He also said he still could not understand how the Meghalaya Police had made a legal lapse by not informing Sonam of the grounds of arrest when she was taken into custody.

In its order on Monday, the Meghalaya High Court pointed to serious errors by the police in informing Sonam of the grounds of her arrest. The court said, "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, which strikes at the root of the process of arrest of an accused person, leading this Court to come to the conclusion that the arrestee does have a strong case to contend that no such effective grounds have ever been intimated to her at the initial stage of her arrest."

The court added that Article 22(1) of the Constitution, read with Section 47(1) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, had been violated. Article 22(1) gives an arrested person the right to be told the grounds of arrest and to consult a lawyer of their choice, while Section 47(1) requires the police to inform the accused of the charges and the grounds of arrest at the time of arrest.

Officials said Sonam was arrested on June 9 from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh on charges of conspiring to murder Raja Raghuvanshi. She remained in judicial custody in Shillong District Jail for more than 10 months before getting bail. Raja, whose family is in the transport business, married Sonam on May 11 last year in Indore.

The couple left for Meghalaya on May 20 for their honeymoon, but Sonam went missing on May 23. Raja's body was found on June 2 in a deep ravine near a waterfall in the Sohra area of East Khasi Hills district. Sonam, her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha, and three of his friends were later arrested in connection with the murder.

With the High Court refusing to cancel Sonam's bail, Raja Raghuvanshi's family has said it will now approach the Supreme Court, while also planning to hire a private lawyer and continue its fight in the case.

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