Police investigating the killing of tourist Raja Raghuvanshi in Sohra will now question another witness in the case.
There are reports that the woman, Ujala Yadav of Uttar Pradesh, has revealed that she travelled with the main accused, Raja’s wife Sonam Raghuvanshi, on a bus just hours before her surrender in UP’s Ghazipur. Yadav is a student from Ghazipur.
When asked if the police will question her, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem said, “We will examine as many witnesses as are required.” However, he added that police are yet to contact her.
According to reports, Yadav saw two men, whose faces were covered, dropping Sonam (who had also covered her face with a cloth) at the Varanasi Cantonment station on the night before she surrendered to police in Ghazipur on June 8-9.
If it is true that two males dropped Sonam at the bus stand, police may also investigate the possible involvement of more people in the case. So far, Sonam has been accused of murdering her husband along with her alleged boyfriend Raj Kushwaha and three hired killers.
During the journey, Sonam was repeatedly enquiring from her co-passenger the distance to Gorakhpur, suggesting that Ghazipur was not her intended stop. Earlier, police had said that Sonam had planned to flee to Nepal; Gorakhpur is directly north of Ghazipur and is close to the border with Nepal.
According to Yadav, the bus left from Varanasi just after 11pm and she said Sonam looked calm even as she was sipping mango juice.
However, during the journey, Sonam was peeved at Yadav for watching an Instagram reel featuring Raja’s grieving mother pleading for the safe return of her daughter-in-law (Sonam); at the time Sonam had not been publicly revealed to be a suspect in the case.