New Delhi:
The owner of the flat where murder-accused Sonam Raghuvanshi and her aides lived after killing her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, is under the scanner of the Meghalaya SIT for concealing evidence. Lokendra Tomar, an infrastructure company owner, allegedly took Sonam’s bag containing a country-made pistol, her phone, Raja’s jewellery, and Rs five lakh cash from the house in Indore’s Hirabagh locality, police sources believe.
Tomar emerged as a suspect while the police were questioning Silome James, the property dealer from Indore who rented the flat to the murder accused.
According to James, Tomar had asked the property dealer to remove Sonam’s bag from the flat shortly after she surrendered to the police. However, when he did not, the flat owner took it. Police sources said Tomar also tried to get the CCTV footage of the car showroom near his flat.
Tomar is currently missing, and his phone is switched off. The police are carrying out raids to locate him in Indore, sources said.
What we know about Sonam’s bag
According to the Meghalaya Special Investigation Team (SIT), Silome James had rented a flat in Indore’s Hirabagh locality to one of three killers – Vishal Singh Chauhan. The victim’s wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, is also believed to have stayed in the flat between May 26 and June 8, before she surrendered to the police. During her interrogation, Sonam said she left a black-coloured bag in the flat on June 8 and left for Ghazipur. Sonam’s phone, Raja’s jewellery, Rs five lakh cash, and a country-made pistol were kept in the bag. However, when the police raided the house, they did not find anything.
Preliminary investigation, however, revealed that two days after Sonam surrendered, James and the building’s security guard, Balveer, went to the flat and removed the bag and other evidence items. They allegedly set the bag on fire and destroyed it. The security guard was given Rs 5,000 to hide the evidence – following which he helped conceal it and escaped to his home in Ashok Nagar. James also took Sonam’s laptop, which was later thrown away by his wife.
The two were allegedly caught concealing the evidence in one of the CCTV cameras collected by the Meghalaya SIT. They were subsequently arrested.
The Honeymoon Murder Case
Raja and Sonam got married on May 11. Nine days later, they left for their honeymoon in Meghalaya on May 20 – with a one-way ticket in hand. The couple roamed around in the Northeast for three days before going “missing”. When their family members could not reach them, they reached out to the police.
What initially started as a probe to find the couple, turned into a murder investigation when Raja’s body was found in a gorge on June 2, ten days after the brutal crime. His preliminary autopsy report revealed that he was attacked twice – once each on the back and front of his head. On the night of June 7, Sonam was found in an unconscious state at a ‘dhaba’ in Ghazipur. She was taken to the Ghazipur Medical College for treatment, where she surrendered before the police. The remaining three killers were also subsequently arrested.
Preliminary investigation revealed that during their honeymoon, Sonam and Raja carried four phones ( of which three belonged to Sonam). After the three hitmen killed her husband, Sonam broke his phone and threw the damaged device, the police said.
The other three mobile phones that belonged to Sonam are still missing, and the police are searching for them.
