Shillong court grants bail to Sonam; Raja’s family to challenge order

Indore/Shillong: A Shillong court has granted bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the murder of her husband and Indore-based transporter Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon trip to Cherrapunjee's Sohra on May 23, 2025, citing police's failure to communicate to her the grounds of her arrest.Additional DC (Judicial) Dashalene R Kharbteng granted relief on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 along with a surety of the same amount. However, the court ordered Sonam to remain in Shillong and appear before it during hearings.Soon after the court order, the victim's family announced plans to move a higher court seeking cancellation of the bail. Raja's brother Vipin Raghuvanshi and mother, Uma Raghuvanshi, voiced anguish, alleging injustice.Sonam's brother Govind Raghuvanshi told TOI that the family is still awaiting the court's written order. He added that any decision on whether to meet Sonam or bring her back to Indore depends on the bail terms.The court noted that the "intimation of grounds of arrest" format presented to Sonam contained unticked checkboxes. In all documents, police erroneously referred to BNS section 403(1) (dishonest misappropriation of property).In none of the documents, the petitioner was intimated that she was being arrested for offence under BNS section 103(1) (punishment for murder), the court said and rejected the contention that it was a clerical error, observing that "...such error cannot occur in all documents".It was Sonam's fourth appeal for bail. "Police will continue to pursue the matter as per law," said East Khasi Hills SP, Vivek Syiem.A week after their marriage on May 12, 2025, the couple visited Sohra on May 26, from where they went missing under mysterious circumstances. After several days of intensive search, Raja's body was retrieved from a deep gorge in Sohra on June 2, 2025.Sonam resurfaced in UP's Ghazipur on June 8, 2025, when she was arrested.On Sept 6, 2025, Meghalaya police filed a 790-page chargesheet against Sonam, along with four co-accused --- her alleged paramour Raj Kushwaha, Akash Rajput, Anand Kurmi, and Vishal Singh Chauhan --- in the murder case.