Meghalaya honeymoon murder: Trial court grants bail to accused wife

A court in Meghalaya has granted bail to a Indore woman who was arrested last year for allegedly conspiring to murder her husband during their honeymoon in East Khasi Hills. 

She is accused of conspiring to murder her husband, in a plot allegedly carried out with her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha and three others.

In the bail order dated April 27, District and Sessions Judge DR Kharbteng found that the police had failed to properly communicate the charges to the accused, Sonam Raghuvanshi.

“In none of the documents has the petitioner been intimated that she is arrested for the offence u/s 103(1) BNS,” the Court said, while referring to the murder charge.

It also noted that she was not represented by counsel when presented before a court in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.

“This shows that sufficient knowledge of facts constituting grounds of arrest, has not been effectively communicated to the petitioner herein in clear terms. Therefore, it can be said that prejudice has been caused to her as far as her defense is concerned. Moreover, there is nothing on record to show that the petitioner was represented by a counsel at the time when she was first produced before the court at Ghazipur, whereby this plea could have been raised by her,” the judge said.

Sonam Raghuvanshi was arrested in June 2025 in connection with the death of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi. She has already been charge-sheeted in the case and is currently undergoing trial.