Indore, 9 June

The father of a Madhya Pradesh woman, who has been accused of hiring men to kill her husband during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, on Monday claimed his daughter was "100 per cent innocent" and demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

Indore's transport businessman Raja Raghuvanshi was allegedly killed by men hired by his wife, Sonam, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, DGP I Nongrang said on Monday morning.

Speaking to PTI, she said the woman surrendered before the police in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, while three other assailants were arrested in overnight raids.

Raghuvanshi and his wife went missing while vacationing in Meghalaya's Sohra area on May 23. His body was found in a gorge on June 2.

Sonam's father, however, refuted the police's claims.

"My daughter is 100 per cent innocent. We demand a CBI probe into the case," Sonam's father Devi Singh Raghuvanshi told reporters.

"The Meghalaya police are giving false statements about my daughter because the state government's image is getting tarnished due to Raja Raghuvanshi's murder case," he alleged.

He further claimed the Meghalaya police have no evidence against his daughter that she gave a contract to get her husband killed.

Earlier in the day, Indore Police Commissioner Santosh Kumar Singh told PTI that the "Meghalaya Police have detained three persons from Indore and its surrounding areas in connection with the murder of transport businessman Raja Raghuvanshi."

He said that Indore police assisted their counterparts in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills district in this operation late Sunday night.

The Meghalaya police will reveal the details of Raja Raghuvanshi's murder, he added.

Earlier in the morning, Meghalaya DGP I Nongrang said, "One person was picked up from UP, and another two accused were apprehended from Indore by the SIT."

"Sonam surrendered at the Nandganj police station in UP, and was subsequently arrested," she added.

Nongrang said the arrested men have revealed that Raja Raghuvanshi's wife had hired them to kill him.

"The operation is still continuing in Madhya Pradesh to catch some more persons involved in the crime," she said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma congratulated the state police for cracking the case that had shocked the nation.