Shillong, 13 June

The killers of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi had a plan to murder any woman and burn her body to pass it as that of his wife Sonam so that she would be able to be in hiding for a few more days till the truth is known, a Meghalaya police officer said.

The police also found out that Raj Kushwaha, a suspected boyfriend of Sonam, was the mastermind in the murder plot, and she is the co-conspirator.

On the first day of interrogation of Sonam, Raj and three others, who were arrested in connection with the killing of the Raja Raghuvanshi, also revealed that she fled from Meghalaya in a burqa and reached the Madhya Pradesh city using various modes of transport like taxi, bus and train.

"The conspiracy to eliminate Raja was hatched in Indore, shortly before his wedding with Sonam on 11 May, and the mastermind is Raj while the woman had agreed to the plot," East Khasi Hills district Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem told PTI.

A few days after the wedding, Raja, 29, and Sonam, 24, had come to picturesque Sohra in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district and went missing on 23 May. His body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls on 2 June, while a search continued for Sonam.

She emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away, in the early hours of 9 June and surrendered. The police had also arrested her alleged boyfriend, Raj Kushwaha and three others – Vishal, Akash and Anand - who, till now, were suspected to have been contract killers.

The planning started in February in Indore and they had thought of ways about how Sonam would disappear after the killing of Raja.

“One plan was to make people believe that she would wash away by a river. Another plan was to murder any woman, burn the body and claim that it was of Sonam. However, none of the plans fructify,” the police officer said.

The group had come a few days before the newly-wed couple reached Assam on 19 May and they had initially planned to eliminate Raja somewhere in Guwahati.

As that did not work for some reason, Sonam planned to go to Shillong and Sohra, and according to understanding, all met at Nongriat, the officer said.

Syiem said they started together for Weisawdong Falls, and there all three hit Raja with a machete they bought in Assam and killed him in front of Sonam between 2 pm and 2.18 pm on 23 May before throwing the body in a gorge.

“When the first arrest (Akash) was made in UP, Raj panicked and told Sonam to call up her family and tell them she just escaped from an abduction gang. That's how this whole thing came to light in Ghazipur,” Syiem said.

They had thought that Raja's body would not be discovered as it was remote and the police enquiry would take one to two months. So she thought of playing the victim card.

“We are recording their statements. We are questioning them. We will gather more evidence and reconstruct the crime scene,” Syiem said.

The officer said the police are confident to file a charge sheet in the case within the mandatory 90 days.

All five were remanded to eight days of police custody on Wednesday.