HT Bureau
SHILLONG, June 26: The court of judicial magistrate (first class) DKK Mihsill has sent the three co-accused in Raja Raghuvanshi murder case to six days of police custody.
Flat owner Lokendra Tomar, property dealer Silome James and the security guard of the flat Balbir Ahirbar were produced before the court on Thursday evening.
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Police had sought 8 days but the court granted six days.
Earlier, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Meghalaya Police on Thursday brought all three recently apprehended individuals in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case to Shillong. The accused – Silome James, Balbir Ahirbar alias Ballu, and Lokendra Singh Tomar – arrived in the state capital on Thursday.
Silome James, a property dealer, was apprehended after being linked to the alleged destruction and concealment of crucial evidence, including a pistol, ammunition, and cash, believed to be from a bag belonging to co-accused Sonam Raghuvanshi.
Balbir Ahirbar alias “Ballu”, a security guard, is believed to possess vital information regarding the movements of the accused at the flat where Sonam Raghuvanshi had taken shelter after she fled Meghalaya after Raja’s murder in Sohra on May 23.
The most recent apprehension, Lokendra Singh Tomar, is the landlord of the Indore flat where Sonam Raghuvanshi had been hiding. He was brought from Gwalior following his arrest there.
On Wednesday afternoon, acting on information provided by Silome James, the SIT recovered a country-made pistol with two magazines and two .32 ammunition from the drain (stream) behind Industry House in Old Palasia in Indore. Further investigation led to the seizure of Rs 50,000 in cash from James’s I10 car (MP09WG 2352).
James reportedly admitted that this cash was taken from a laptop bag belonging to Raj Kushwaha, the alleged lover of Raja Raghuvanshi’s wife Sonam Raghuvanshi and a co-accused in the murder. While the bag itself was found burnt, the laptop reportedly thrown by the roadside could not be located.
Raja Raghuvanshi, a newlywed businessman from Indore, had come to Meghalaya for his honeymoon. He arrived in Shillong on May 21 with his wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, following their marriage on May 11. On May 22, they went to Sohra on a rented Scooty, specifically to Nongriat Double Decker Living Root Bridge and spent the night in a nearby homestay.
On June 2, Raja’s body was found in the gorge below the parking lot and it was established that he had been murdered. Meghalaya Police constituted a SIT and started investigating. After piecing together all the evidence, they arrested Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, Raj Kushwaha and Anand Kurmi on June 8-9 from different parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
