East Khais Hills Superintendent of Police (SP) Vivek Syiem confirmed today evening that the tourist from Indore, Raja Raghuvanshi, whose body was discovered yesterday, was murdered.
Alongside the weapon, police also recovered a broken mobile phone, believed to belong to the victim.
Speaking to reporters, Syiem stated that a team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Special Operations Team (SOT) continued the search for Raja’s wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, in the same area from where his body was recovered. However, the search was called off in the evening and will resume from the same spot tomorrow morning.
“Yes, the weapon (dao) was used to murder. Whether the motive was robbery or a vendetta or any issue between the victim and the accused we need to find that out,” Syiem said.
Police are looking for more evidence from the place of occurrence and elsewhere and only then can a conclusion be reached. It was clear to police on Monday, when the body was recovered, that the death had not been natural. However, the official cause of death was only ascertained today following the autopsy.
“We had registered a case for murder, common intention and destruction of evidence. There is no doubt that it is murder but we have to find out what is the motive behind it,” Syiem said.
The district police chief said that the weapon was new and had been bought specifically for this purpose.
“The gorge at Weisawdong is three-tiered and, during the operation, we recovered the victim’s mobile phone along with a newly purchased dao used in the murder.”
Regarding the condition in which the body was found, Syiem said, “We can’t say whether the victim was killed and then thrown into the gorge or whether he was alive at the time he entered the gorge. The post-mortem report will help us determine the nature and cause of the injuries and whether they were fatal before the fall.”
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the case, led by SP City. The SIT includes four Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) – DSP Crime, DSP City, DSP Operations, and SDPO Sohra – as well as two Sub-Inspectors.
