Sonam Raghuvanshi, the woman accused of killing her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya in 2025, was granted bail on Tuesday after it was rejected thrice in the past. The court documents accessed by NDTV reveal that Sonam might have secured bail due to a “clerical error”.
A ‘Non-Existent Section’ vs Murder Charge
In the 2025 honeymoon murder case, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, pertaining to murder. It is a fundamental right of every person arrested and detained in custody to be informed of the grounds of their arrest. In Sonam’s case, under the “Intimation of Grounds of Arrest”, Section 403 (1) of the BNS was mentioned, the court noted.
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The BNS, which replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on July 1, 2024, does not have a section 403 (1). Under the IPC, section 403 dealt with the offense of dishonest misappropriation of property.
“A bare perusal of the Intimation of Grounds of arrest would indicate that the Petitioner was not informed about the offence under section (u/s) 103(1) BNS. Though it has been argued that this is a clerical error, however such error cannot occur in all documents,” the court order read.
The East Khasi Hills district court noted that in all documents pertaining to Sonam Raghuvanshi, from the checklist for justification of arrest, memo of arrest, inspection memo, intimation of rights of the arrested person, extract of case diary, the “sections referred to is u/s 403(1)/238(a)/309(6)/3(6) BNS. In none of the documents has the petitioner been intimated that she is arrested for the offence u/s 103(1) BNS.”
The court also stated that the “grounds of arrest must exist before the same are informed.”
Furthermore, the court noted that none of the checkboxes in the prepared format had been ticked to indicate the accusations against Sonam.
Lack Of Legal Representation
The court further noted that there was nothing on record to show that Sonam was represented by a lawyer when she was first produced before the court at Ghazipur, where this objection could have been raised earlier. This became another factor in rejecting the argument that she had waived her right by raising the issue late.
Sonam Got Bail, But With 4 Conditions
Dashalene R Kharbteng, Additional DC (Judicial), Shillong granted bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi in the infamous honeymoon murder case on four conditions:
- She shall not abscond or tamper with the evidence or witnesses;
- She shall attend court on every date fixed;
- She shall not leave the jurisdiction of this court, except with due permission; and
- She shall execute a personal bond of Rs 50,000 only with two sureties of like amount to the satisfaction of this court.
All About Honeymoon Murder
Raja Raghuvanshi, a businessman from Indore, married Sonam on May 11, 2025. By May 20, the newlyweds had left for a honeymoon in Meghalaya. The couple was soon reported missing, prompting a massive search operation by the Sohra police, the Special Operations Team, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), trekking groups and locals.
On June 2, Raja was found dead.
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Sonam, along with her lover, Raj Kushwaha, a former worker at her family business, planned to kill Raja during the honeymoon and make it look like an accident. Three hired men attacked Raja with machetes near Wei Sawdong Falls while Sonam was present. His body was thrown into a gorge, and the phone was switched off.
Days after the murder, on June 9, Sonam appeared at a dhaba in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and was taken into custody. Kushwaha and three other hired killers — Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, and Anand Kurmi — were also arrested. They continue to be in judicial custody.