The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, who is accused of murdering her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, while agreeing to examine the state government’s challenge to the order.
A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu issued notice to Sonam Raghuvanshi but observed that it would first monitor the progress of the trial. Although the Bench expressed reservations about the Meghalaya High Court’s decision, it noted that Sonam had already been released from custody and therefore did not suspend the bail. The matter has been listed for further hearing on July 9.
State Government Challenges Bail
The Meghalaya government approached the Supreme Court after the Meghalaya High Court, on June 29, upheld a Shillong trial court’s April 27 order granting bail to Sonam.
Appearing for the state, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the allegations against the accused were grave and contended that she should not be released on what he described as technical grounds. During the hearing, he also referred to the Pune fort murder case involving the alleged killing of Ketan Agarwal by his fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged lover, Chetan Chaudhary.
Reasoning Behind Bail Orders
The trial court had granted bail after finding serious deficiencies in the manner in which the investigating agency communicated the grounds of Sonam’s arrest.
According to the court, several arrest-related documents, including the arrest memo, justification checklist, inspection memo and extracts of the case diary, incorrectly cited Section 403(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita instead of Section 103(1), which pertains to the offence of murder.
The trial court concluded that the repeated reference to the incorrect provision could not be dismissed as a simple typographical error. It found that the documents failed to inform Sonam that she was being arrested for murder and also did not communicate the specific factual basis of the allegations against her at the time of arrest.
The Meghalaya High Court later dismissed the state’s appeal, rejecting its contention that the mistake was merely clerical and had caused no prejudice.
Justice W Diengdoh observed that the same error had been repeated across multiple official documents and questioned how such a mistake could occur consistently. The High Court further noted that parts of the arrest records appeared to have been copied from standard templates, including an irrelevant description referring to the accused as a deserter from the armed forces.
The High Court held that the preparation of the arrest documents reflected a lack of application of mind and found that they failed to clearly communicate the actual allegations against the accused.
Background Of The Case
Sonam Raghuvanshi and Raja Raghuvanshi, both residents of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, were married on May 11 last year and travelled to Sohra in Meghalaya for their honeymoon on May 20.
The couple went missing three days later. Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered on June 2.
Sonam, 25, was arrested from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh on June 9 last year. Her alleged lover, Raj Singh Kushwaha, was subsequently arrested in connection with the case.
She remained in judicial custody at Shillong District Jail for about ten months before being granted bail by the trial court. The Supreme Court will continue hearing the Meghalaya government’s challenge on July 9.
