An Indian bride allegedly had her newlywed husband killed during their honeymoon before she vanished, sparking a massive search that finally ended when she surrendered to police, according to reports.
Sonam Raghuvanshi, 25, turned herself in on Monday, June 9, a week after her husband Raja’s rotting corpse was found with his throat slit at the bottom of a forestry gorge in Meghalaya on June 2.
The 30-year-old mutilated man was also missing his wallet, a gold ring and a chain.
Raghuvanshi, who wed her now-slain husband in an arranged ceremony in Indore on May 11, hired four men to carry out the twisted murder, police said.
“Their marriage was arranged four months back and they were both happy and there had been no fights between the couple before or after marriage,” Raja’s brother, Vipin Raghuvanshi, said, the outlet reported.
“Only Sonam can clarify. If she’s guilty, she should be punished.”
The couple left for their honeymoon on May 20, but their families reported them missing four days into the trip, prompting police, disaster relief teams, and local residents to launch a search effort.
Raja’s decomposed body was found within a week, but the couple’s family publicly accused police and government officials of not doing enough to investigate the murder or locate Raghuvanshi.
The alleged killer bride was picked up by police late Sunday, June 8, when she showed up at a restaurant and tearfully called her brother, who immediately notified authorities, the Times of India reported.
Three other suspects have since been arrested in connection with the vicious slaying, while one assailant remains at large, police confirmed, according to the BBC.
Raghuvanshi’s father, who has yet to speak with his daughter, has maintained her innocence, claiming she “somehow managed to escape her captors” and that police are “making up stories.”
However, Raja’s brother, who also criticized authorities and government officials, has accepted the accusations leveled against his sister-in-law.
“I now believe that the Meghalaya government was not lying,” he said, the outlet reported. “They were telling the truth.”
Local officials blasted the distressed family for unleashing baseless claims during the investigation, even threatening to file a defamation case against them for “maligning the image” of Meghalaya and its people.
“The truth has come out,” Minister Alexander Laloo Hek told reporters Monday, in a clip shared on X by ANI, an Asian news network.
“Our police have done an excellent job and have nabbed the culprit within seven days.”
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
