Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was found in a gorge in Meghalaya on June 2 and the police say his wife, Sonam, had planned the murder because she was in love with Raj Kushwaha, an employee in her family-run business. Kushwaha, it is alleged, had helped plan the murder and had involved three of his friends – Akash, Anand, and Vikash – who were promised Rs 20 lakh by Sonam.
Kushwaha’s sister Suhani has, however, stressed he is innocent. Her 21-year-old elder brother, she said, used to call 24-year-old Sonam Raghuvanshi ‘didi’ (elder sister) and he only spoke to her about office-related matters.
Speaking to NDTV on Tuesday, a day after Kushwaha’s arrest, Suhani said her brother never spoke to the family about Sonam.
“He would never talk to us about didi. She would call him in the morning and sometimes we would answer and she would tell us it was time for him to get to work, that there was a vehicle waiting to be loaded. He worked in her office for two years,” Suhani said in Hindi.
The young girl also said Kushwaha was in Indore on May 23 when Raja Raghuvanshi was murdered in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills.
Asked how Kushwaha would address Sonam, Suhani said, “He and Sonam would only talk about work. They would not talk regularly. He would say ‘didi is calling, answer and tell her that I will be reaching work soon’. He used to call her didi.”
Suhani said no one from the family attended Sonam’s wedding on May 11 because they had gone to their village. Kushwaha was in Indore “to pay rent”, she said, but he did not attend the wedding either as something had happened to their father on May 11 and no one from the family celebrated on that date.
‘Want Justice’
To a question on whether there had been any change in Kushwaha’s behaviour after he started working with Sonam, she answered in the negative. “There was no change even when he found out that didi had got engaged,” she stressed.
Breaking out in tears after she was asked about the allegations against Kushwaha, Suhani said, “We don’t believe this. We don’t believe my brother can ever do this. We just want him to get justice. He has never done anything like this… He can never do this. Raja bhayya had not done anything, he had made no mistake, why would anyone kill him?”
