• Source:JND

Sonam Raghuvanshi, accused of masterminding the murder of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, was granted bail on Tuesday. According to reports, Sonam's bail was granted due to a "clerical error". Her bail had previously been rejected three times.

The First Information Report (FIR) filed after Raja Raghuvanshi's murder cited Section 403(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). However, the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on July 1, 2024, does not contain any such section as Section 403(1).

Meanwhile, under the IPC, Section 403(1) relates to dishonestly receiving property. According to an NDTV report, regarding this mistake, the court said, "A cursory perusal of the notice of reasons for arrest reveals that the petitioner was not informed of the offence under Section 103(1) of the IPC. While it was argued that this may be a typographical error, such a mistake cannot occur in all documents."

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Necessary To Tell Accused About Crime Before Arrest: Court

The East Khasi Hills District Court further observed that in all the documents relating to Sonam Raghuvanshi, including the checklist of justification for arrest, arrest memo, inspection memo, information regarding the rights of the arrested person, case diary summary, and the sections under which the arrest was made, none of the documents informed the petitioner that she was arrested for an offence under Section 103(1) of the CrPC.

"The grounds for arrest must be present before the arrest is reported,” the court remarked. The court observed that none of the checkboxes in the format prepared to indicate the charges against Sonam were ticked.

The court further observed that there was nothing on record to establish that Sonam had a lawyer present when she was first presented before the Ghazipur court; had there been a lawyer, this objection could have been raised earlier. This provided further grounds for rejecting the argument that Sonam had waived her right by raising the issue late.

Sonam Gets Bail With 4 Conditions

Shillong's Additional Deputy Commissioner (Judicial), Dashalin R Kharbateng, granted bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi with four conditions:

-First, she will not abscond or tamper with evidence or witnesses.

-Second, she will appear before the Court on all dates fixed by the Court.

-Third, she will not leave the jurisdiction of this Court without the proper permission of the Court.

-Finally, she will furnish a personal bond of Rs. 50,000, along with two sureties of the like amount, to the satisfaction of the Court.

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Meghalaya Honeymoon Murder

Raja went for a honeymoon to the northeast with his wife Sonam when the latter conspired with her lover Raj Kushwaha to hire three men to kill Raja. Raja’s body was dumped in a nearby gorge in the Sohra area in the East Khasi Hills district on May 23. Raja was killed by three hitmen, namely, Vishal, Anand and Akash, hired by Sonam and her lover.


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