
Raja Raghuvanshi murder: "They had kept their luggage here for 2-3 days," says hotel manager
Jun 12, 2025
Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], June 12 : The hotel manager of the hotel where Raja Raghuvanshi and Sonam Raghuvanshi had kept their luggage during their search for a hotel room has shared the CCTV footage with the Police.
The manager said that Raja Raghuvanshi and Sonam Raghuvanshi had kept their luggage during their search for a hotel room, that they had visited there to find a room, but due to the unavailability of rooms, they had kept their luggage there for 2-3 days.
The hotel manager said, "They had visited here to find a room, but due to the unavailability of rooms, they had kept their luggage here for 2-3 days. Soon after we learnt about this case, we informed the police, who took away their luggage. The couple had come here on a two-wheeler. We have shared the CCTV footage with the Police."
Earlier, Meghalaya Minister Alexander Laloo Hek said he considered the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case as a "purely organised and pre-planned crime".
The court has remanded all five key accused, including Sonam Raghuvanshi, to eight days of police custody in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case, police said on Wednesday.
The Meghalaya minister highlighted that the government and the people of Meghalaya want the accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case shall be punished as per the law.
"This is a very Meghalaya Minister Alexander Laloo Hek on Thursday considered the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case as a 'purely organised and a pre-planned crime'. It was initiated by Sonam Raghuvanshi, and it is a purely organised and pre-planned crime. From the beginning, they wanted to eliminate Raja Raghuvanshi. We have to go with a full investigation, and they should be punished under the law. "The government and people of Meghalaya want that they should be punished as per the law for murdering a person in the state of Meghalaya," Meghalaya minister Alexander Laloo Hek told ANI on Thursday.
The Meghalaya minister also expressed his happiness after the family of Raja Raghuvanshi apologised to the state government and police. He said that Raja Raghuvanshi's family were blaming Meghalaya police and the state's people after they heard the shocking news regarding the murder of their son.
"I would like to give my praise to the Meghalaya state police for doing a very significant job of nabbing the culprits. Those culprits will be in the remand of the police for eight days. I would like to convey my condolences to the family of Raja Raghuvanshi, who was brutally murdered in Meghalaya. I understand that in the beginning, they were very angry because after they received the news, they were very shocked. "It was very sad that their son was brutally murdered, and at that moment they blamed the people of Meghalaya and the police, but now we are very happy that they have apologised," he added.
The state minister revealed that the police have found a mangalsutra and a ring from Sonam Raghuvanshi's suitcase, which was left in their homestay. He considered it a "vital" clue for the Meghalaya police.
"I saw the news that Meghalaya police have found a mangalsutra and ring from Sonam's suitcase, which was left in the homestay. So I think this is a very vital clue... "The people of Meghalaya and the government of Meghalaya want the accused to be punished according to the law," he said.
Sonam Raghuvanshi, the wife of the victim, along with four others, including Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, Raj Singh Kushwaha and Anand, are accused of murdering Raja Raghuvanshi, who recently got married and went on a honeymoon to Meghalaya.
Raja's body was found on June 2 in a gorge at Sohra near Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. Sonam Raghuvanshi was later found near a dhaba on the Varanasi-Ghazipur main road.
Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife, Sonam, both residents of Madhya Pradesh's Indore, had gone missing during their honeymoon in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Raja Raghuvanshi's body was later recovered in Meghalaya.