A love affair, lies, then cold-blooded murder: Eerie echoes of 2003 Ring Road case in Meghalaya honeymoon horror

It started as a promise to stay together through thick and thin – little did they know that behind those vows and promises, lies were taking root, bringing their story to a chilling end in cold-blooded murders – twenty two years apart. Now, as the Meghalaya honeymoon horror grips the nation, eerie parallels emerge with the infamous 2003 Ring Road murder case – both bound by a love affair, betrayal, lies, and a brutal end to two lives.

In 2003, a young woman, Shubha, pursuing a law degree got engaged to software engineer Girish in Bengaluru. A few days later, Girish was hacked to death. Cut to 2025, 24-year-old girl Sonam married Indore resident Raja Raghuwanshi. A few days later, his body was found from a gorge in Meghalaya where the couple had travelled for their honeymoon. The root cause of both cases was a love affair that ended the lives of two unsuspecting men.

Two days after their engagement, Shubha asked Girish to take her to dinner at Airport Road. After dinner, Shubha took Girish to a dark stretch near HAL airport on the pretext of watching the landing of the planes.

As they watched planes land, a group of men suddenly attacked Girish, striking him on the head with a blunt weapon. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died the next day.

One of the accused was Arun Verma – Shubha's junior in college and boyfriend. They had been in love and thought Girish was an obstacle. Before and after the murder, both Shubha and Arun kept in touch by voice calls and messages.

But arresting Shubha and Arun was a tough task. With no solid clues, the police were left grasping at straws for several days, until they rewatched the couple’s engagement video and noticed Shubha’s apparent disinterest.

The cops decided to question Shubha.

Shubha had apparently made several calls to Arun before and after Girish's murder. Arun, on the other hand, had claimed that he was not in town on the day of the killing. His phone location said otherwise.

Before their engagement, Shubha had reportedly told her mother that she was in love with Arun but her mother dismissed her.

As they searched through hills for days on end tracing their movements through CCTV footages and eyewitnesses, a semi-decomposed body of Raja Raghuwanshi was found on June 2 from a gorge near the Wei Sawdong Falls in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills.

Sonam was still missing. As both families mourned Raja’s death, fears started loom over Sonam’s fate. Where was she?

Days later, Sonam surfaced in Ghazipur of Uttar Pradesh, claiming to have been drugged with no memory of how she reached there. Inconsolable, Sonam called her brother in Indore. Police came to pick her up and took her for a medical examination.

Then the gruesome details emerged.

Meghalaya top cop claimed that it was Sonam who had orchestrated Raja's murder with the help of her lover, Raj Khushwaha, and three of his accomplices.

Sonam and Raja got married in Indore on May 11 and reached Meghalaya via Guwahati in Assam on May 20 for their honeymoon. Both of them went missing on May 23 in Sohra in East Khasi Hills district, hours after checking out of a homestay at Nongriat village.

According to the police, Raja and Sonam walked into the homestay in Sohra on May 22 without any prior booking.

They did not get a room there, and thus, decided to keep their suitcase at the homestay, as it would have been difficult to trek over 3,000 steps with it to the Nongriat village to see the double-decker root bridge.

While their suitcase remained at the Sohra homestay, they spent the night at another homestay in Nongriat before checking out early on May 23. They trekked back to Sohra, took their scooter from the parking and went to Weisawdong Falls.

On the way to Weisawdong Falls, three men – identified as Akash Rajput, Vishal Singh Chauhan, and Anand Kurmi – befriended Raja and started speaking with him in Hindi. After reaching a deserted location, Sonam allegedly instructed the three to kill Raja.

Sonam was in touch with her boyfriend Raj throughout the day of the murder, while Raj coordinated with the three contract killers

Before Sonam surfaced, the three contract killers were arrested by the cops. Sonam allegedly surrendered later.

While checking the bags the couple left at the Sohra homestay, the police found a mangalsutra and a ring – which also helped the investigators crack the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, Meghalaya DGP, I Nongrang, said.

“We recovered Sonam's mangalsutra and a ring from the suitcase the couple abandoned at a homestay in Sohra. A married woman leaving behind the ornaments gave us a clue to pursue her as a suspect in the case,” Nongrang said.

(With agency inputs)