The murder of Indore's Raja Raghuvanshi took a dark turn as police discovered a sinister plot to conceal his wife's death. Investigators found that the perpetrators intended to kill an unidentified woman and burn her body to pass it off as Raja's wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi. This scheme was designed to give Sonam more time in hiding before the truth was revealed. The police also revealed a plan to mislead people into thinking that Sonam had been washed away by a river.

Vivek Syiem, the police superintendent of East Khasi Hills, identified Raj Kushwaha as the mastermind behind the murder, with Sonam Raghuvanshi as a co-conspirator. The entire conspiracy was hatched in Indore just before Raja's wedding. The accused disclosed that there were three other failed murder plans before Raja was killed.

According to Syiem, the four arrested suspects, including Raj Khushwaha, were friends of Sonam and Raj, with one being a cousin of the latter. The planning for the murder began three months before the wedding in February. Sonam was found in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, approximately 1,200 km away, on June 9, where she surrendered.

Planned Murder and Deception

The police revealed that one of the plans involved making people believe that Sonam had been swept away by a river. Another plan was to kill a woman, place the body in Sonam's scooter, burn it, and claim it as Sonam's remains.

The group arrived in Assam a few days before the couple reached on May 19, initially planning to kill Raja in Guwahati. When these plans failed, they moved to Shillong and then Sohra. At Weisawdong Falls, they fatally attacked Raja with a machete in front of Sonam before disposing of the body in a gorge. Sonam gave her raincoat to Akash to conceal a bloodstain on his shirt. They fled on scooters, with Akash discarding the raincoat later due to bloodstains.

Raj provided Sonam with a burqa through Vishal Chauhan, which she used to travel from Shillong to Indore. A witness claimed to have seen Sonam and Raj with three others. Raj instructed Sonam to leave Indore and reappear in Siliguri, pretending to be a kidnapping victim. However, Raj's arrest on June 8 prompted Sonam to contact her family, claiming she had escaped abduction. She was eventually found in Ghazipur and taken into custody.