The legal battle in Meghalaya’s much-discussed Honeymoon Murder case has taken a new turn. The Meghalaya government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Meghalaya High Court’s order upholding the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi.
On Wednesday, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta sought an urgent hearing on the petition before a Supreme Court bench led by Justice M.M. Sundresh. Mehta told the court that Sonam was granted bail solely on the ground that she was not fully informed of the reasons for her arrest. According to him, the situation arose due to a typographical error in the section number mentioned in the arrest documents.
Pointing out the risk of the accused absconding, the Solicitor General urged the court to list the matter urgently. Responding to this, Justice M.M. Sundresh agreed to list the case for hearing on Thursday.
Earlier, the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Shillong, had granted bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi. The court observed that the police had failed to effectively inform her of the grounds of arrest. The court also noted that this lapse had violated the accused’s right to defend herself.
According to the court’s observation, several documents — including the checklist on justification for arrest and the case diary — erroneously mentioned Section 403(1) instead of Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which applies to punishment for murder. While the police argued that it was merely a typographical error, the Meghalaya High Court noted that the repetition of the same mistake in multiple crucial documents could not be ignored.
The High Court said that if there are errors in the foundational documents used as the basis of the case, such errors cannot be rectified by subsequent processes. On that ground, the High Court upheld the trial court’s order granting bail.
It may be noted that Sonam Raghuvanshi and Raja Raghuvanshi, who got married on May 12, 2025, had come to Meghalaya for their honeymoon on May 23. They went missing after leaving a guesthouse in Nongriat. A few days later, their rented scooter was recovered in the Sohra area.
Subsequently, on June 2, Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered from a deep gorge near Wei Sawdong Falls in East Khasi Hills district. Meanwhile, Sonam, who remained missing, was recovered on June 8 near a roadside dhaba close to Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh.
In its investigation, Meghalaya Police suspected Sonam and her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha to be the main conspirators in the murder. The police have already submitted a chargesheet of over 700 pages to the court. The chargesheet describes the murder as pre-planned and has levelled serious charges against Sonam and Raj Kushwaha.