The Meghalaya High Court on Monday upheld a Shillong court order granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, and dismissed the state’s appeal challenging the bail.
A single bench, W Dingdoh, dismissed the state’s appeal against the April 2026 order of Additional Deputy Commissioner (Judicial), Shillong, granting bail to Sonam on procedural grounds.
The Supreme Court reserved its ruling on June 10 after hearing arguments from both sides for more than 10 days. A detailed ruling is awaited.
The lower court granted bail after finding that the police failed to properly inform Sonam of the reasons for her arrest, which prejudiced her defence.
In its order, the Shillong court noted that the documents related to the arrest, including the checklist justifying the arrest, the arrest warrant, the search warrant and excerpts from the case diaries, repeatedly cited Section 403(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with abetment to crimes rather than Section 103(1), which deals with punishment for murder.
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The court rejects the prosecution’s argument regarding clerical error
The court rejected the prosecution’s argument that the discrepancy was merely a clerical or typographical error.
“Such an error cannot occur in all documents,” the lower court noted, noting that none of the documents submitted to Sonam indicated that she was arrested for murder under Section 103 (1) BNS.
The state, represented by Solicitor General Amit Kumar, argued before the Supreme Court that no actual harm had been caused to the accused due to the error and that Sonam was fully aware of the serious charges against her.
The State also claimed that the defect was curable and could not in itself justify bail.
During the hearings, Judge Dingdu verbally questioned why the same error was repeated across multiple documents, and also pointed out apparent inconsistencies in the template-based arrest forms.
The case relates to the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, who traveled to Meghalaya with his wife Sonam for their honeymoon in May 2025. The couple went missing after checking out of a house in Nongriat on May 23. Raja’s body was later recovered from a deep gorge near Wisawdong Falls in Sohra, while Sonam was traced days later in Uttar Pradesh.
The Meghalaya Police have already filed a chargesheet of over 700 pages, alleging that the murder was premeditated and carried out as part of a conspiracy involving Sonam and her alleged lover, Raj Kushwaha.
