The Meghalaya police have arrested a landlord for allegedly concealing crucial evidence in the case of murder of local businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, police said today.
The landlord is wanted in connection with the destruction and concealment of evidence, East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem said.
Lokendra Singh Tomar, a resident of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh is the landlord of the flat in Indore Dewas Naka locality, which was rented out to murder co-accused Vishal Chauhan,
Raghuvanshi’s wife, Sonam had taken shelter in the flat after the murder last month.
Syiem said Tomar was apprehended from Gwalior, following a request from the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
He said the accused had left Madhya Pradesh on June 16 for Uttarakhand and had proceeded to Gwalior on June 22.
“Presently, a splinter team of SIT is proceeding from Indore to Gwalior to formally arrest the accused person, where he will then be produced before court in Gwalior for transit remand,” Syiem said.
All the three accused will most likely be brought on Wednesday to Shillong, the SP said.
On Sunday, the SIT of the Meghalaya Police arrested a property dealer Silome James and a security guard Balla Ahirwar for concealing a box belonging to Sonam. The box is believed to have contained key evidence linked to the murder.
The total number of people arrested in the case rose to eight.
Sonam stayed in the flat for several days on return from Meghalaya, before eventually surrendering to police in UP on June 8.
Indore-based transport businessman Raghuvanshi married Sonam on May 11 in Indore and the couple left for their honeymoon in Meghalaya on May 20.
Raghuvanshi went missing on May 23 and his mutilated body was recovered on June 2 from a deep gorge near a waterfall in the Sohra area of East Khasi Hills district.
Raja was hacked to death by three men using two machetes near a secluded parking lot close to the famous Weisawdong falls in Sohra on May 23, the day the couple was reported missing.
Sonam, accused of conspiring with her alleged lover to kill her husband, surrendered on June 8 before the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, while four other accused have been arrested from different locations in MP and UP.
The Meghalaya Police had earlier arrested five persons in connection with the murder — Sonam, her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha and the latter’s three friends Vishal Chauhan, Akash Rajput and Anand Kurmi.
The five are currently in judicial custody and lodged at a jail in Meghalaya.
