New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to July 21 the hearing on the Meghalaya government’s plea challenging the grant of bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi honeymoon murder case.
A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale deferred the matter after Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Meghalaya government, sought a later hearing.
The apex court initially posted the matter for hearing later in the day. However, it was subsequently adjourned and listed for further hearing on July 21.
The Meghalaya government has challenged the order granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, contending that the courts below erred in treating a typographical error in the arrest documents as a fatal procedural defect.
During the previous hearing, SG Mehta had argued that it was a “very serious case” and that the written grounds of arrest had in fact been supplied to the accused.
He had submitted that the only discrepancy was that Section 403(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was mentioned instead of Section 103(1), which relates to the offence of murder. “The written grounds are also supplied. The only thing is that there is a typographical error,” the Solicitor General had submitted.
However, the apex court observed that the issue was not merely whether the statutory provisions were communicated but whether the accused had been informed about the general background of the sensational case. It had directed the Meghalaya government to place on record photocopies of the original arrest memo and other documents supplied to Sonam Raghuvanshi at the time of her arrest.
Earlier, on July 3, the Supreme Court had issued notice on the Meghalaya government’s plea but declined to stay the operation of the High Court’s order, observing that the accused had already been released on bail.
The apex court had then expressed prima facie reservations about the Meghalaya High Court’s reasoning. “We have a reservation, prima facie, about the High Court order. We will see how the trial proceeds. The fact remains that she was informed about the grounds. In the earlier bail pleas, she did not raise this issue,” the Justice Sundresh-led Bench had observed.
The Meghalaya government has challenged the June 29 judgment of the Meghalaya High Court, which upheld a Shillong trial court’s order granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi after finding serious procedural lapses in her arrest.
The trial court had held that all arrest-related documents, including the arrest memo and other records, incorrectly referred to Section 403(1) of the BNS instead of Section 103(1), and concluded that the accused had not been properly informed that she had been arrested for the offence of murder.
Rejecting the prosecution’s contention that the mistake was merely typographical, it held that the defect had prejudiced the accused’s defence.
The case relates to the murder of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, who had travelled to Meghalaya with his wife, Sonam, for their honeymoon shortly after their marriage in May 2025.
According to the prosecution, Sonam conspired with her alleged lover and hired assailants to eliminate Raja during the honeymoon. Following completion of the investigation, the police filed a chargesheet, and the trial is presently underway.
(IANS)
