A newlywed woman’s white shirt clung to the rocks in the Wei Sawdong gorge, its fabric battered by the unrelenting rain in Meghalaya’s Cherrapunji.
Nearby lay her husband’s body, his smartwatch still wrapped around his decomposing wrist.
The crime scene – across the steep terrain below a parking lot in Riat Arliang – has become the centre of a probe being conducted by a Meghalaya police Special Investigation Team into what happened to a couple from Indore who had come to the Northeastern state for their honeymoon.
Raja Raghuvanshi (28), who ran a transport business, spent months planning the perfect honeymoon. A quiet man from Indore’s middle-class Palasia neighbourhood, he had been saving up to take his wife Sonam (24) to the living root bridges of Meghalaya, which Instagram had made famous among young couples seeking the perfect backdrop for their new lives together.
His family described him as “methodical”, the kind of man who “researched every detail of a journey and would never venture into unknown terrain without a plan.”
According to Sonam’s sister Priyanshi Jain, the couple had “an arranged marriage of their own will” – a union that bridged tradition and choice in a way that both families celebrated. “They were happy,” Priyanshi said.
His family described him as “methodical”, the kind of man who “researched every detail of a journey and would never venture into unknown terrain without a plan.”
Sonam, her family said, would call her mother-in-law, Uma, daily and observe religious fasts even while travelling. When she last spoke to her mother-in-law, Sonam’s voice carried the breathless excitement of a woman discovering the world beyond her hometown’s familiar streets.
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“He’s taken me into the jungle, and the climb is very steep,” Sonam said, her words punctuated by the sound of her laboured breathing. This audio recording is the only remaining memory of the bride, who is now missing.
It was May 23, and the couple had been in Meghalaya for only a day. Vipin, Raja’s brother, said, “Their phone was switched off. We waited for days before heading to Meghalaya. We reached out to the local police and began looking for them.”
Search team in Meghalaya. (Image: Special Arrangement)
For days, Raja’s brothers Vipin and Sachin, along with Sonam’s brother Govind, combed the hills. The Meghalaya police, they claimed, kept citing bad weather as the reason for the delay, as precious hours slipped away.
Their first clue was a GPS tracker on a rented Activa scooter. The digital breadcrumbs showed the couple had headed towards the Wei Sawdong area. Raja had hired a local guide to show them Sohra’s famous double-decker bridges – living root formations that have become Meghalaya’s most photographed tourist attraction.
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During the return journey, Raja made what would be his final phone call, mentioning that “he tried local coffee but didn’t like it, and was now eating bananas”. The call ended at 1:43 pm, Vipin said.
The couple’s rented scooter was found abandoned 25 kilometres from where Raja’s body would eventually be discovered, the key still dangling from the ignition as if the riders had expected to return. Near the scooter, the search party found two bags belonging to the couple. “I have been to the double-decker roots; you can’t take your belongings. They must have kept it near the scooter to take one last photo before returning home,” Priyanshi speculated.
On June 2, after eight days of an intensive search through challenging weather conditions, a police drone finally spotted what the search teams had been dreading.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Mark A Challam later described the discovery in clinical terms: “After an eight-day search, since the couple Sonam and Raja Raghuvanshi went missing on May 23, the police drone spotted the body in the deep gorge below the Weisawdong parking lot at Riat Arliang at 11.48 am.” The search party involved the police, SDRF, Special Operations Team, and the West Jaintia Hills District Adventure Mountaineering Club.
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The recovery operation was as challenging as the search “due to the steep and inaccessible terrain,” Challam said.
Raja’s relatives identified his body through a tattoo of his name on his right hand.
Among the evidence seized at the scene were items that painted a picture of the couple’s final moments: A woman’s white shirt, a strip of Pentra 40 tablets, fragments of a Vivo mobile phone’s LCD screen, and a smartwatch still clinging to the deceased’s wrist.
The post-mortem report eliminated any doubt: Raja had been killed with multiple blows from what East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem confirmed was a tree-cutting tool, likely a local implement called a “dao.”
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“It’s a case of homicide. The body which we got, the person has been murdered. There is no question about it. We have registered a case under sections of murder, destruction of evidence and common intention. We have to find out what the motive is,” he said.
Raja’s personal effects – his purse, gold chain, diamond bracelet and ring – were missing, his family alleged.
The family’s suspicions centred on three individuals: the guide who left the couple alone, a restaurant owner with whom Raja had reportedly argued with, and the vehicle rental owner who they claimed had withheld information from investigators. “We want a CBI investigation into this case. We have our suspicions and want a fair investigation to uncover this murder. We want Sonam to be found,” Vipin said.
Back in Indore, Raja’s parents, Uma and Ashok, have been kept from television, mobile phones, and social media as relatives struggle with how to deliver the devastating news. Uma continues her daily visits to the temple, praying for her son’s safe return. “We have not told our families, it is a very sensitive issue,” Priyanshi said.
