Shillong, June 29: In a major breakthrough in the high-profile murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Meghalaya Police has successfully recovered stolen jewellery belonging to Sonam Raghuvanshi and the deceased, along with other incriminating evidence.

The recoveries were made from the house of the father-in-law of property dealer Shilom James in Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.

The SIT, led by SI Anthony Khongsit and SI Karan Pachua, was assisted by officers and men from Alkapuri Police Station, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, Vivek Syiem, said in a statement.

In addition to the jewellery, the SIT also found and seized a laptop, a pen drive, and several incriminating papers from the house.

This is the third time that the Meghalaya Police’s SIT went to Indore in connection with the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. They arrived in Indore with Shilom James on Saturday night and conducted search at his house in Mahalaxmi Nagar late in the night. From there they went to Ratlam, where the jewellery and other evidence were recovered.

Shilom James is currently in the custody of Meghalaya Police. He was caught while attempting to flee at the Bhonrasa Toll Gate in Dewas district on June 21. He was brought to Shillong along with Balbir Ahirbar, commonly known as Ballu, and Lokendra Singh Tomar, on June 26 and sent to 6 days of police custody. All three were arrested on charges of destruction of evidence in connection with the Raja murder case.

Silome James had rented a flat in Indore’s Hirabagh locality to Vishal Singh Chauhan, one of the main accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. It is in this very flat that Sonam Raghuvanshi, Raja’s wife and a co-accused, is believed to have stayed for over 10 days after escaping from Sohra in Meghalaya on May 23.

Police zeroed-in on him after failing to recover crucial pieces of evidence from the flat after the arrest of Sonam Raghuvanshi, Raj Kushwaha (co-accused and mastermind), and alleged hitmen Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, and Anand Kurmi. During investigation, they found James removing a bag belonging to Sonam from the flat in a nearby CCTV camera.

Since the arrest of Shilom, Police have made several recoveries related to the case. These include a country-made pistol with two magazines and two .32 ammunition, along with Rs 50,000 in cash. Charred remains of a bag and other burnt items were also recovered from an empty plot in MR3 Hare Krishna Vihar in Indore based on his lead.

While James arrest was quite evident, Balbir Ahirbar, commonly known as Ballu, the security guard of the building where Sonam stayed, relates to him having information on the movements of the accused and other developments within the premises, as well as his alleged role in aiding James in destroying evidence.

Lokendra Singh Tomar, the landlord of the Indore flat where Sonam had hidden, was the most recent apprehension. He was tracked down and caught in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

Sequence of events in the case so far 

Raja Raghuvanshi, a newlywed businessman from Indore, had come to Meghalaya for his honeymoon. He arrived in Shillong on May 21 with his wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, following their marriage on May 11. On May 22, they went to Sohra on a rented Scooty, specifically to Nongriat Double Decker Living Root Bridge and spent the night in a nearby homestay.

On May 23, he was killed at the parking lot of the Wei Sawdong Falls. At the crime scene was his wife along with three alleged hired killers – Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, and Anand Kurmi, who are believed to have carried out the murder.

On June 2, Raja’s body was found in the gorge below the parking lot and it was established that he had been murdered. Meghalaya Police constituted a SIT and started investigating. After piecing together all the evidence, they arrested Vishal Singh Chauhan, Akash Rajput, Raj Kushwaha and Anand Kurmi on June 8-9 from different parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Sonam, who had been hiding in a rented flat in Indore till June 8, travelled to Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and surrendered at Nandganj police station in the early hours of June 9.

Following this, all five were brought to Shillong on June 11 and initially remanded to eight days of police custody. During interrogation, it was revealed that Sonam had left behind a bag in the flat while fleeing Indore. This bag contained vital evidence such as her second mobile phone, Raja’s gold chain, her gold jewellery as well as Rs 5 lakh cash and a country-made pistol. However, when the SIT returned to Indore to check the flat, it was empty. This made them suspicious. They reviewed the footages from the nearby CCTV cameras, and in one of them Shilom James was allegedly seen taking a bag out of the flat.

Shilom James was arrested on June 21, Ballu on June 22 and Tomar on June 25. All three were brought to Shillong on June 26 and sent to 6 days of police custody.

Ahead of being brought to Shillong, James had led police to recover a charred bag and other burnt items from an empty plot in MR3 Hare Krishna Vihar in Indore on June 22, a day after his arrest. On June 25, he led the police to recover a country-made pistol with two magazines and two .32 ammunition, along with Rs 50,000 in cash, from a drain (erstwhile stream or river) in Indore.

On June 29, he again led police to recovery of Raja and Sonam’s jewellery, a laptop, a pen drive, and several incriminating papers from the house of his father-in-law in Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh.

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