Raja Raghuvanshi Murder Case: Meghalaya High Court Upholds Sonam Raghuvanshi's Bail

A single-judge Bench of Justice W. Diengdoh rejected the State's plea seeking cancellation of Sonam's bail after reserving judgment on June 10 following more than ten days of arguments. The detailed judgment is awaited.

According to reports, Advocate Sudev Thapa, appearing for Sonam Raghuvanshi, confirmed that the High Court had dismissed the State's petition seeking cancellation of bail. According to him, the State had invoked the High Court's inherent powers to challenge the bail granted by the trial court.

The Meghalaya Police had argued that the bail order was based on a curable procedural defect and that the accused was fully aware she had been arrested for murder.

Sonam had secured bail from the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Judicial), Shillong, in April 2026 after the trial court found serious procedural lapses in her arrest. The court held that the investigating agency had failed to properly communicate the grounds of arrest, thereby violating her constitutional rights under Article 22 of the Constitution.

The sessions court noted that while Sonam was accused of the offence of murder under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the arrest memo, checklist for justification of arrest, inspection memo, case diary extract and other documents consistently mentioned Section 403(1) BNS instead. It observed that the error was repeated across multiple documents and could not be dismissed as a mere typographical mistake.

The court had further observed that the specific facts constituting the offence of murder were never communicated to the accused at the time of arrest, resulting in prejudice to her defence.

Challenging the order, Meghalaya Advocate General (AG) Amit Kumar contended before the High Court that Sonam had failed to demonstrate any actual prejudice caused by the error. He argued that she was fully aware she had been arrested in connection with Raja Raghuvanshi's murder, pointing to her signatures on arrest documents, repeated remand orders and the filing of three earlier bail applications.

The State also relied on the Supreme Court's decision in State of Karnataka v. Sri Darshan (2025), arguing that such procedural irregularities are curable defects and cannot, by themselves, justify grant of bail.

During the hearing, however, Justice Diengdoh had questioned why the same error appeared consistently across all arrest-related documents. The Court also orally observed that the arrest forms appeared to be template-based and even contained an irrelevant reference describing the accused as a "deserter" from the armed forces, raising concerns about whether the grounds of arrest had actually been explained to her.

The High Court ultimately declined to interfere with the lower court's order. During arguments, Justice Diengdoh also observed that the bail conditions adequately addressed concerns regarding the accused absconding and remarked that if any violation occurred, the law would take its own course.

What is the Raja Raghuvanshi Murder Case?

The case relates to the sensational "honeymoon murder" that came to light after Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam, who had married on May 12, 2025, went missing during their honeymoon in Meghalaya. Raja's body was recovered from a gorge near Weisawdong Falls on June 2, while Sonam was traced days later near Varanasi.

The Meghalaya Police have since filed a chargesheet exceeding 700 pages, alleging that Sonam conspired with her alleged lover Raj Kushwaha to murder Raja in a premeditated plot. The criminal trial will continue independently of the High Court's decision on bail.