Raja Raghuvanshi murder case: Three SIT teams question five accused separately

Shillong, June 13 The three teams of Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Meghalaya police separately questioning the five accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case, sources said on Friday.

According to sources, the accused have been questioned for a total of 25 hours so far, and each accused is being questioned separately.

“The three teams of SIT questioning the accused on the basis of the evidence and data gathered from Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya,” a source said.

All the five accused including (deceased) Raja Raghuvanshi’s wife Sonam Raghuvanshi in the sensational murder case were presented at a Shillong court on June 11 -- ten days after Raja's body was recovered on June 2 from a deep gorge below the Wei Sawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang in Sohra in East Khasi Hills district, sending shockwaves across the country.

The court sent all five accused to eight days' police custody.

A source said: "Today (Friday), questioning focused on Sonam’s marriage and facts prior to the wedding.There are discrepancies between Sonam’s and Raj’s statements on certain points.”

Questions were asked regarding the clothes and burqa worn on the day of the incident, the source said, adding that the SIT teams also questioned about the money in the bank account.

Meanwhile, after the sensational murder in Sohra, the Meghalaya government on Friday decided to strengthen the existing law to ensure the safety of state residents and curbing the entry of criminal elements posing as tourists.

The government move comes weeks after the ghastly murder of Raja Raghuvanshi, who was brutally killed during a honeymoon trip to Sohra-Cherrapunji areas of the East Khasi Hills district in a plot allegedly orchestrated by his wife Sonam and her lover Raj Singh Kushwaha.

Cabinet spokesperson and Meghalaya Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh after the cabinet meeting said that the council of ministers in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Friday decided to review the Meghalaya Resident Safety and Security Act (MRSSA), 2016, an existing state legislation, to add more tough provisions to this Act to minimise the possibility of criminal elements entering Meghalaya in the pretext of tourists.

Besides Sonam and Raj Singh Kushwaha, 21, her alleged lover and the mastermind, the other accused are Anand Singh Kurmi, 23, Akash Rajput, 19, and Vishal Singh Chauhan, 22.

East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Vivek Syiem, said that police officials are now interrogating the five accused to unearth the truth of the sensational killing.

"After three to four days of questioning, we would take all five accused to the Sohra-Cherrapunji areas to recreate the crime. This is a part of our investigation of the killing," Syiem had told IANS.

He said that they would submit the charge sheets against the accused before the court as soon as possible.

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