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GUWAHATI, June 13 -- Sonam Raghuvanshi has confessed to playing a role in the murder of her husband Raja during their honeymoon in Meghalaya and accused her alleged boyfriend Raj Kushwaha of hatching the conspiracy for the crime, police officials said on Thursday.
The Meghalaya police has begun the interrogation of Sonam, Raj, and the three men they allegedly hired to kill the Indore-based businessman.
During his round of questioning, Raj sought to blame Sonam for orchestrating the murder, the officials said.
"She has confessed that she (Sonam) is part of the conspiracy, but the question as to who is the mastermind that is to be established because she is blaming Raj whereas Raj is putting the blame on Sonam," Meghalaya Police DIG (Eastern Range) Davis NR Marak said.
"From the statements of the accused persons, it appears that it was the hired contract killers that killed Raja. The statements of the contract killers suggest that Sonam helped in throwing the body after Raja was killed. She helped in lifting the body and throwing it to the gorge," Marak said.
He said the investigation has started to unearth the conspiracy.
"There are inconsistencies in the statements collected individually of all the accused persons. We are also investigating the amount of money Sonam promised to pay to the hitmen and how much she had already paid," Marak said.
The DIG said that the accused will be taken to Sohra, 50 km away from Shillong where the murder took place, to recreate the scene.
"The recreation of the crime scene will take place after we have established the facts and the inconsistencies of the different accused persons will have to be ironed out. Once there is clarity on statements of all the accused persons then we will be taking them to different places for recreation of the crime scene," he said.
According to the senior officer, the police are verifying if any of them conducted a recce of Sohra and the jungles of Nongriat before. The couple stayed at a homestay in Nongriat.
None of the accused so far admitted to have conducted a recce, he said.
The special investigation team conducting the probe into the murder is seeking assistance from the police in Assam and other states to link all evidence in the case.
The three hired killers from Indore stopped over for a night in Guwahati and procured from there a machete that was later used to kill Raja, he said.
The three and the couple arrived in the Meghalaya capital Shillong around the same time before they started for Sohra last month, Marak said.
Raja (29) and Sonam (24) went missing in the hills of Sohra on May 23. Raja's body was found in a gorge near Weisawdong Falls on June 2.
A search continued for Sonam, who emerged in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur, around 1,200 km away, in the early hours of June 9 and surrendered.
Police have also arrested her alleged boyfriend Raj Kushwaha and three contract killers.
The three hired killers from Indore stopped over for a night in Guwahati and procured from there a machete that was later used to kill Raja, police officers aware of the matter said....
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