Mastermind(‘s) Raj: Planned Murder 11 Days Before Marriage; Read The Modus Operandi Here

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Meghalaya police, during a press conference on Thursday, named Raj Kushwaha as the master-mind of Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. “In fact, he had hatched the murder 11 days before Sonam-Raja marriage on May 11,” said SP Syiem adding, “The motive was rooted in love affair. Sonam was being reportedly forced to marry Raja despite being in love with someone else.”

Again, it was Raj who paid ₹50,000 to the three hired killers. While two of them were his friends, the third was his cousin. The amount was meant to cover their expenses and logistical needs during the murder trip.

Two ‘disappearing’ plan after roka

SP Syiem said, “Right from February, they had started planning ways to make Sonam disappear after murder. As per first plan, Sonam would be washed away in river after Raja’s murder. In the second plan, they planned to kill a woman and burn her body along with scooty. Later, they would have claimed the body as of Sonam. But all these things did not fructify.” Interestingly, the roka ceremony was held on February 11.

Murder for friendship

According to Syiem, this was not a contract killing, but rather a crime carried out as a favour among friends.

“The three people involved are friend and one of them is Raj’s cousin. It was not a contract killing. They did it as a favour for their friend," he noted.

Three foiled attempts

The trio made three attempts to kill Raja before finally succeeding in the fourth bid. The first attempt was made in Guwahati. After reaching Guwahati on May 19, they purchased murder weapon (dao) but failed to find a suitable murder location even in two days.

Hence, they headed to Shillong on May 21. They decided to kill Raja in Nongriat on the night of May 22, but called off the plan after failing to find an appropriate place to dispose the body.

The next day, i.e, on May 23 they tried to kill Raja when he went to answer nature’s call between Mawlakhiat and Weisangdaw Falls. Here too they were met with failure.

Raja was finally killed at Weisangdaw Falls. They lured Raja to gorge railing for a picture with Sonam, where Vishal struck him with the dao. Later, all the four—including Sonam—threw his body into the deep gorge, where it was discovered on June 2.

Murder between 2 pm & 2:18 pm

The SP said that after marriage Raja and Sonam headed to Kamakhya. The trio had already reached Guwahati two days in advance on May 19. After they failed to kill Raja, Sonam devised another plan and decided to head to Shillong and Sohra with killers following the couple.

The couple met the trio in Nongriat and next day headed to Weisawdong. The trio hacked Raja one-by-one in the parking lot before Sonam’s watchful eyes. They later dumped the body in gorge. All this happened between 2pm and 2:18pm. All four of them left the place around 2:18pm, he added.

Sonam gave her raincoat to Akash

Syiem said that Sonam gave her raincoat to Akash after his shirt had blood strains. “Sonam was driving one of the scooties when the killers left Weisawdong.

At Evi point, Akash dumped the raincoat as it too had blood stains. At the time of its recovery, we were not sure whether it was stained by blood or other material but now we have confirmed that it is blood and we are sending it for forensics,” he stated.

The escape

After dumping the raincoat, Akash took over the scooty and Sonam became the pillion rider. Anand Kurmi drove the scooter which Sonam and Raja had hired and discarded it in Sohra Rim and left for Shillong.