Video Shows Indore Couple Outside Meghalaya Hotel Before Going Missing

Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam were visiting Cherrapunjee in the East Khasi Hills for their honeymoon when they went missing on May 23.

Advertisement
Read Time: 3 mins

The couple went missing on May 23.

Fresh CCTV footage of an Indore couple, who went missing in Meghalaya last month, have been released by the state police, amid an intensified probe to trace the woman after her husband's body was found last week.

Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam were visiting Cherrapunjee in the East Khasi Hills for their honeymoon when they went missing on May 23. The couple arrived in Nongriat a day earlier and were last spotted checking out of Shipara Homestay. A scooty that they took on rent was found abandoned at Sohrarim a day after they went missing. 

On June 2, Raja's body was found, with the help of a drone, inside a deep gorge below the Weisawdong Parking Lot at Riat Arliang. A machete suspected to be used to murder him was also recovered from near the spot, police said. They added that the whereabouts of Sonam remain unknown. 

While the police continue with their probe and have intensified their search for the woman, they have also released a fresh CCTV clip of nearly five minutes on the couple's activities shortly before they went missing.

One of the videos shows the couple arriving on the two-wheeler at the Shipara Homestay. Raja is seen parking the vehicle outside. Sonam is then spotted taking out her jacket while her husband hands over something to her. The man is also seen sitting at the doorstep of the hotel.

Another footage shows Raja at the reception of the homestay, appearing to check out to travel elsewhere. Sonam, meanwhile, is spotted sitting alone on the scooty outside and waiting for her husband.  

Advertisement

Earlier, the police released footage of the couple checking into a Shillong hotel. 

A Special Investigation Team of the Meghalaya Police is probing the matter, even as Raja's family demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) handle the case.

"We demand a CBI probe in the case. His (Raja) body was found 25 kilometers away from where the vehicle (a rented scooty) was parked. We suspected that he was kidnapped (and taken to Weisawdong falls). It is not possible for my  brother and his wife to die by suicide. The local police are not ready to listen to us when we say it is a case of kidnapping, looting and murder," the victim's brother Vipin Raghuvanshi said.

Last month, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said he was "personally monitoring" the administration and police's efforts to trace the couple. Sources said the matter is being probed by the top brass in the state government. Mr Sangma is also in constant touch with the search agencies and concerned authorities, they said.

Advertisement

Besides the police, the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force and a Special Operations Team are involved in the search operations.

Topics mentioned in this article