Patna: Police reached Patna early Tuesday morning with murder-accused Sonam Raghuvanshi, wife of slain Indore transport businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, in a dramatic overnight convoy that saw security lapses and an intense court hearing deep into the night.
A five-member team from Meghalaya police, escorting Sonam on transit remand, arrived in the city at 6.30am and took her to Phulwari Sharif police station under tight security. The team is en route to Shillong via Guwahati, with Sonam scheduled to board a SpiceJet flight at 12.40pm today.
The convoy’s journey from Ghazipur to Shillong, routed through Buxar and Patna, was reportedly fraught with tension. Sources revealed that after a brief 15-minute halt at Buxar’s Adarsh Nagar police station, the Meghalaya police convoy found itself without an escort in rural Buxar. Bihar police, reportedly tasked with providing security, disappeared after Dal Sagar Toll Plaza, leaving the Shillong team alone on the road.
Forced to return to Adarsh Nagar station, Meghalaya police reportedly waited nearly an hour before security was re-established around 2am to resume the journey to Patna.
Sonam, dressed in a black T-shirt and trousers, appeared visibly shaken. Observers at various points during the journey noted her dishevelled appearance and vacant gaze. After asking for food, she reportedly told a woman inspector, “I don’t remember anything,” when questioned about her ordeal.
Sonam’s arrest comes 17 days after her husband Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered from a gorge in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills on June 2. The couple had vanished on May 23 during a honeymoon trip to Sohra. Sonam was finally found on Sunday night in a distressed state at a roadside dhaba in Ghazipur, 1,100km away.
On Monday night, Sonam was presented before a Ghazipur court, where a special hearing ran from 9pm to midnight. The court granted Meghalaya police a three-day transit remand to take her to Shillong for further investigation.
Meanwhile, the net around the alleged conspiracy widened on Monday with the arrest of three other accused from Indore—Raj Kushwaha, Vishal Chauhan and Akash Rajput. The trio has been handed over to Meghalaya police on a seven-day transit remand. Another suspect, Anand Kurmi, arrested from Bina, is expected to be produced in court today.
Indore’s Additional DCP Rajesh Dandotia said the four accused will be flown to Shillong on Tuesday morning, even as investigators attempt to piece together the chilling sequence of events that led to the businessman’s brutal murder.
For now, the mysterious figure at the heart of the case—Sonam—remains largely silent, with more questions than answers as police continue their probe.
