The Supreme Court of India (SC) on Friday turned down the plea to stay the bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the key accused in the sensational Raja Raghuvanshi murder case, during their honeymoon trip to Meghalaya last year. While the top court expressed reservations over the Meghalaya High Court’s reasoning, it refused to interfere with the bail order at this stage, observing that Sonam had already been released from prison.

A Bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu remarked that it would first monitor the progress of the ongoing trial before taking any further view on the case. It also issued a notice to Sonam, while scheduling the case’s next hearing for July 9.

SC examines Meghalaya Government’s challenge

Notably, the Meghalaya government approached the apex court after the Meghalaya High Court (HC) upheld a Shillong trial court’s order granting bail to Sonam. The HC had junked the state’s appeal on June 29, following which the government sought intervention from the apex court.

Appearing on behalf of the Meghalaya government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that the allegations against Sonam were grave and that she should not be granted liberty merely on technical lapses during the police probe.

During the proceedings, Mehta also referred to the recent Pune Lohagad Fort murder case, alleging similarities in the nature of the accusations.

Accused Sonam (Left) and her late husband, Raja Raghuvanshi (Right)

Honeymoon murder which sent shockwaves across nation

For the unversed, Sonam was arrested in June 2025 on charges of allegedly murdering her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, with the help of her lover Raj Kushwaha and three of his accomplices.

The couple, who hailed from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, got married on May 11, 2025, and travelled to Sohra in Meghalaya for their honeymoon on May 20. They were said to be missing three days later, and Raja’s body was discovered on June 2.

Sonam (25) was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur on June 9, 2025, while her alleged lover, Raj Singh Kushwaha, was subsequently arrested as part of the probe.

Sonam procured bail over procedural lapses

After spending nearly 10 months in judicial custody at the district jail in Shillong, Sonam managed to bag bail from a trial court on April 27, 2026. The court found that investigating officers had failed to properly communicate the legal grounds under which she was arrested.

As per the court, several arrest-related documents, including the arrest memo, inspection memo, justification checklist and extracts from the case diary, incorrectly cited Section 403(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) instead of Section 103(1), the provision dealing with murder.

The trial court ruled that the repeated mistake could not be dismissed as a simple clerical error, particularly since none of the documents clearly informed Sonam that she had been arrested for murdering Raja. It further observed that the factual basis of the allegations had not been adequately communicated at the time of arrest.

HC raises questions over probe

Challenging the bail order, the Meghalaya Government argued that the incorrect statutory provision was merely a typographical error and had caused no prejudice to the accused.

However, the HC trashed the contention, observing that the same mistake appeared consistently in multiple official documents. Justice W Diengdoh also underscored that parts of the arrest records appeared to have been copied from standard templates, including an irrelevant reference describing the accused as a deserter from the armed forces.

The HC remarked that the preparation of the arrest documents reflected a lack of due application of mind and failed to specify the exact allegations against the accused. With the SC now declining the bail’s stay, the legal battle will continue to unfold when the matter comes up for hearing on July 9, 2026.