Three men, and possibly a woman, stood overlooking a steep gorge near the Wei Sawdong Falls in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills on the afternoon of May 23. They were not admiring the view, though it is spectacular. They had just murdered Raja Raghuvanshi and were dumping his body.
Raghuvanshi, 30, was found at the bottom of that gorge on June 2, his body hacked into and his death the result, the police believe, of a nefarious scheme allegedly hatched by his wife (of less than a fortnight) Sonam Raghuvanshi and her lover, Raj Kushwaha, with help from three 'contract killers'.
All five - details of whose plotting include a clandestine meet at a cafe, one-way tickets to Meghalaya, and the purchase of an axe (the murder weapon) online - have been arrested.
NDTV visited the waterfall viewpoint to understand what transpired at 'Land's End', such as it was for Raja Raghuvanshi, and was given a firsthand lesson in why recovering the Madhya Pradesh-based businessman's body was so difficult, even when the cops knew where to look.
Thirty seconds was all Nature needed to cover the gorge in mist, making it impossible to see into the valley or across it, to the mountains on the other side, and rising to cover even the cliff edge.
In fact, were it not for a waist-high metal barrier around the edge, unwary souls might take a step too far off the cliff and plummet to a rocky doom, falling maybe a thousand feet.
The deep gorge, changeable weather, and the remote location all conspired to make the police's job very difficult indeed; drones, in fact, were sent into the gorge to find Raghuvanshi's body.
And, as if to illustrate that point, the weather changed again while NDTV was at the spot, the mist rolling back partially to reveal the foliage lining the gorge while still hiding most of the drop.
And these reasons fed into the killers' selection of this spot, the police have indicated, for their dastardly deed. The cops believe it was here, or somewhere nearby, that Raja was murdered.
Sonam and Raja Raghuvanshi on the day of their marriage.
The logic is quite unescapable; it would have been impossible, dangerous even, for the killers to be spotted carrying Raghuvanshi's body to the dumping site if he had been killed elsewhere.
And, as NDTV retraced his footsteps on his final day, it soon became quite apparent the murder was pre-meditated, for the trekking route they were on was a less-travelled road, meaning there were fewer chances his death or his killers would be seen.
What Happened In Meghalaya?
On May 20, Raja and Sonam left for their honeymoon in Meghalaya.
They had a one-way ticket only.
The three 'killers' followed them on their journey, dispatched to Guwahati first by Raj Kushwaha to buy the axe and then to Shillong, where they stayed at a hotel near the couple's homestay.
The picture of honeymoon bliss, Raja and Sonam visited tourist hotspots in the beautiful northeastern state over the next two days, including the 'living roots' bridge in Nongriat.
A dazed Sonam Raghuvanshi surfaced in UP on June 8, two weeks later.
They were seen on the morning of May 23 by a local guide, Albert Pde.
That was at 10 am. That was the last time Raja Raghuvanshi was seen alive.
READ | "3 Men, Spoke Hindi, Non-Local": Guide Helps Solve Honeymoon Murder
Pde's sighting was critical, since he told the police he saw Raja and Sonam, and three other men, who were speaking in Hindi. The three men Pde saw were most likely the killers.
What happened between then and June 2, when the body was found, is still unclear, although sources close to the investigation have offered NDTV some details, including Raj Kushwaha's alleged role in orchestrating the murder and Sonam's "kill him" signal to the murderers.
READ | Sonam Acted Tired, Walked Behind Raja, Then Yelled "Kill Him": Sources
What happened after June 2 is unclear also.
Sonam disappeared. There are reports that she was spotted in Indore after her husband's death, possibly to meet with her lover, who had stayed away from the northeast, but there is no confirmation of this. What we do know is that Sonam Raghuvanshi surfaced in UP on June 8.
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