Police in Meghalaya are now looking for a second dao, or machete, which their investigation has revealed was used in the murder of Indore resident Raja Raghuvanshi during his honeymoon in Sohra last month, East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem said on Tuesday.
The SP said this after taking all accused in the murder case, including Raja’s wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, to the scene of the crime for a reconstruction.
Syiem said that police recreated the scene at five locations on the trail that the couple and the assailants had taken on May 23, the day Raja was hacked to death near the Wei Sawdong falls. The couple had been on their honeymoon.
His body had been recovered from a gorge below the falls on June 2, after which police also recovered one dao, which they identified as a murder weapon. However, police said that during the interrogation, they found that another dao had also been used in the assault and that all three of the alleged assailants, Vishal Singh Chauhan, Anand Kurmi and Akash Rajput, had struck Raja.
“We have ascertained what the position was just before the murder, who was standing where, and how the blows took place. Three blows took place, the first blow was by Vishal. The second was by Anand, and the last blow was by Akash. In our interrogation, we have ascertained that there was one more dao, or machete, which needs to be recovered. It is still down there,” said SP Syiem.
“Sonam was there when all this happened. She had given a signal to them (the assailants) from the parking lot that they should finish the job… When the first strike was delivered by Vishal and he (Raja) had fallen, she ran because he was screaming,” Syiem said.
He said the assailants had made an attempt to assault Raja at another location, three-four kilometres before the Wei Sawdong falls, but abandoned it when he started to move away.
“According to them, it was by chance that they chose this place. There were multiple locations where they had wanted to finish him off… When they got to this place, they found it was empty and there was a viewpoint where they could dispose of the body,” he said.
Sonam, the three assailants and Raj Kushwaha, who Sonam was allegedly in a relationship with, had been arrested in connection with the murder last week. Syiem said the accused have confessed to the offence during the course of the investigation.
“These reconstructions have been based on the interrogations we have been conducting over the last few days. In the interrogations, they have confessed to the offence. We just had to reconstruct how they had done it… So, we have got a very clear picture. We have recorded videography, and we have got independent witnesses to cover it,” the SP said.
