“Sonam has admitted her complicity out here. This whole thing had happened right from Indore just before her marriage to Raja it was hatched and the mastermind of this is Raj. Sonam played along with this plan and she was a partner of this plan,” Syiem said.
“It was not a kind of contract killing which they planned. Yes, the plan was to kill but it was done as a favour to their friend Raj”, Syiem said.
Investigation further revealed that the accused persons had made several failed attempts till they were successful in eliminating Raja at Weisawdong on May 23.
“Actually right from the month of February in Indore, they had thought of ways where Sonam would disappear and probably after disappearing one instance was to make her get washed by a river. Another instance was murder somebody, put her in her scooty, burn that person’s body and claim that it is Sonam’s but all these things did not fructify,” Syiem said.
“So when Raja and Sonam got married and they came for darshan to Kamakhya, the other group had also come here. In fact, the group of three people had come few days before on May 19 and they had plans to eliminate Raja somewhere in Guwahati. Since it didn’t fructify there also, Sonam made a plan to come to Shillong and Sohra. They met in Nongriat and from Nongriat, they came out together and on their way to Weisawdong, Raja while all of them were there inside the parking lot, all of the three assailants – one by one they had hacked him. She was there and the body was thrown. This happened between 2 – 2.18 pm. At 2.18pm they all left that place,” he said.
Raja’s decomposed body was recovered from a gorge at Weisawdong on June 2.
According to Syiem, it is a case of love affair.
“Raj is the mastermind. These are friends of his and they wanted to get rid of him in various places. I want to tell you infact they first wanted to get rid of him somewhere in Guwahati but it did not materialise, they wanted to eliminate him in Nongriat but they didn’t find a place to dispose of the body, they wanted to do it in between Mawlakhiat and Weisawdong when Raja went to attend nature’s call but that also didn’t fructify, finally they did it in Weisawdong”, he added.
The SP said the raincoat which Sonam was wearing was given it to Akash as his shirt had a blood spot.
“In fact, one of the scooties was driven by Sonam when they left Weisawdong. When they reached Evi point, Akash got down there to throw the raincoat because it had blood stains. When it was recovered, we were not sure whether it was stained by blood or other material but now we have confirmed that it has blood stains and we are sending it for forensics,” he said.
“Akash took over the scooty and Sonam became the pillion rider. Anand Kurmi drove the scooty which Sonam and Raja had hired and left it in Sohra Rim and from thereon just after Lad Mawphlang (police are trying to ascertain which place), she boarded a taxi and Vicky who is Vishal Chauhan had given her a burqa, which Raj has given to him. Sonam wore this burqa came to Police Bazaar, took a tourist down to Guwahati and in Guwahati she went to ISBT took a bus to Siliguri and then changed a bus to Patna and then from Patna took a bus to Arash and then took a train to Lucknow and from Lucknow took a bus to Indore”, he said.
After the reports on the tourist guide’s revelation about the Indore couple were accompanied by the three assailants, Syiem said that Raj had told Sonam better leave Indore and come out somewhere in Siliguri and resurface there as a victim of abduction.
When Sonam was supposed to leave Indore for Siliguri on June 8, the two teams of Meghalaya police made their first arrest- Akash at Uttar Pradesh. Raj came to know about this but he was not sure that they were police team.
“They were hoping nobody would find that body as it is very far away and she would have played to be victim and probably she must have thought enquiry will take one-two months and body will be decomposed and we will not know. So she can play the victim card,” the SP said.
When asked, Syiem said that Sonam had claimed that she was forced to marry Raja and that was the reason that led to his murder.
He said the financial or property angle will also be investigated.
According to Syiem, not much money was paid to the three assailants since they were friends.
“Raj had given them Rs 50,000 for the expenditures out here. It has not come out as of now whether any consideration was there considering Raj’s financial background as he is coming from poor family background but we will see if there is a financial or property angle to this,” the SP added.
He said after getting proper facts from all the accused persons, police will gather evidence and then take them to Sohra for the reconstruction of the crime scene.
He also expressed confidence to be able to file chargesheet before 90 days.
“Murder angle was not in the minds of police because Sohra is a peaceful place and no such incident has happened to any tourist before”, he said.
“We have trekkers who are lost, of course we had one incident where a trekker got lost and died – so murder was not in our mind first as that place was very tourist friendly, people are very helpful.
When we found the body we realised it is not a suicide case,”he said.
