Post Murder Burqa-Clad Sonam Reached Indore & Hid Here For 14 Days

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In a chilling twist to the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case, Meghalaya police revealed on Thursday that his wife and prime accused Sonam Raghuvanshi lived undetected in Indore for 14 days—watching the investigation unfold from the shadows.

After the murder on May 23, Sonam donned burqa provided by Vishal Chauhan, sent by Raj from Indore, and vanished from Shillong in a hired taxi. Her escape route was serpentine: first to Guwahati, then a bus to Patna via Siliguri. From Patna, she reached Bihar’s Ara district before taking a train to Lucknow. Finally, she arrived in Indore by bus on May 26—three days after the crime.

The most chilling detail: Sonam was in Indore on June 2, when Raja’s body was discovered in a deep gorge in Meghalaya’s Sohra. She remained here silently until June 8, monitoring developments from a rented flat. Following the reports on the tourist guide’s revelation about the couple were accompanied by the three, Raj asked Sonam to leave Indore.

Sources said it was her lover and co-accused Raj Kushwaha who made all arrangements—food, groceries worth Rs 5,000 delivered to her door, a hideout flat, and steady communication. While the city reeled in shock, Sonam lay low.

Sonam was to pose as abducted victim

In a darkly premeditated twist, the murder accused had hatched a plan to have Sonam Raghuvanshi reappear in Siliguri—dressed in black, disheveled, and claiming she had been abducted and trafficked to Bangladesh. It was meant to be a masterstroke of misdirection.

“They were banking on Raja’s body decomposing over time,” said East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem. “With Sonam emerging days later as a supposed trafficking victim, they thought she’d escape suspicion entirely.”

The conspirators hoped the investigation would drag for months. But Meghalaya Police stayed one step ahead—and unravelled the script before it played out.

Sonam's victim act cut short

Sonam Raghuvanshi was en route to Siliguri to pose as an abduction victim when her scripted escape went awry. On June 8, Raj arranged a vehicle from Indore to Ghazipur, where she would eventually “resurface” with a false tale of abduction.

But fate flipped the script. That same night, Meghalaya and UP Police arrested Akash Rajput, one of the co-accused. Raj panicked. Fearing the web collapsing, he called Sonam and told her to inform her family she’d “escaped.” She called her brother Govind—and surrendered to Ghazipur police.

“I was forced to marry Raja”

“I was forced to marry Raja,” Sonam allegedly confessed during interrogation, shedding light on what she claimed led her to betray and eliminate her husband. According to East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem, Sonam told police that she never loved Raja and had been married against her will.

“She loved someone else,” said Syiem. “The marriage was imposed on her, and this emotional entrapment pushed her into joining the plot.” Authorities believe this was a key factor behind her involvement in the murder that shocked the nation—an act driven, as she claimed, by a heart silenced too long.