Meet Silome James, property dealer, who helped Sonam Raghuvanshi hid box of jewellery, laptop, weapon

The Meghalaya Police's Special Investigation Team has arrested two additional suspects Silome James and Balvir Ahirwar in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly assisting Sonam Raghuvanshi following the murder of her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to seven. She hid jewellery, laptop with the help of James in a box, which was later found destroyed.

Who are the two accused arrested in Honeymoon murder case?

James, a property dealer, was arrested on Saturday evening while he was attempting to escape to Bhopal from the Bhonrasa toll-gate in Dewas district. “He is a property dealer and lessee of a building at Heera Bagh Colony in Indore where Sonam had stayed and kept the jewellery and other items she took with her after the incident,” PTI quoted East Khasi Hills district SP Vivek Syiem as saying.

He helped Sonam hid a box consisting of jewellery, a laptop and possibly a weapon belonging to her alleged boyfriend Raj Kushwaha. The box was later annihilated, police sources said.

“The property dealer led the SIT to the place where he had disposed of all the items of the box by burning,” an SIT officer mentioned stating no signs of the pistol, jewellery or laptop were discovered.

James rented the flat to co-accused Vishal Chauhan for ₹17,000 per month, the officer told reporters on June13.

Cops nabbed a watchman and carpenter Ahirwar as another accused from his native village in Ashok Nagar district on Sunday, ANI reported. He was reportedly employed at the Indore flat where Sonam and a key accused in the murder had stayed after escaping Meghalaya.

“Shillong police came to Shadora today. They took a person named Balvir Ahirwar with them to Indore for questioning. According to the preliminary investigation, the flat in which Sonam Raghuvanshi stayed after the murder, Balvir Ahirwar was working there as a watchman and a carpenter,” Ashoknagar SP Vineet Kumar Jain said as per ANI.

Both appeared before an Indore court and remanded in the transit custody of Meghalaya Police for seven days, according to Additional DCP Rajesh Dandotiya.

On May 23 during his honeymoon trip, Raja Raghuvanshi was brutally hacked to death near Weisawdong Falls in Sohra. His mutilated body was found on June 2. The murder was allegedly planned by his wife, Sonam, and her lover, Raj Kushwaha, who are among the five accused already in judicial custody in Meghalaya.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)