An Indian bride who went missing on her honeymoon has been arrested on suspicion of plotting to murder the groom.
Newlywed Sonam Raghuvanshi was taken into custody by police after surrendering herself June 8, six days after the body of her new husband Raja Raghuvanshi, with whom she disappeared during their honeymoon in northeastern India, was discovered in a gorge with his throat slit.
Authorities allege that the 25-year-old and her boyfriend Raj hired a group of men to kill Raja while the newly-married couple was vacationing, prompting the arrest of Sonam and four other individuals.
“The plan was to kill Raja in a distant place,” Indore deputy police commissioner Rajesh Dandotiya told reporters, per Hindustan Times, “dump his body somewhere where it would not be found and then live happily.”
However, Sonam’s dad Devi Singh adamantly denies the allegations against his daughter and has accused the local government of “lying from the beginning” of their investigation.
“My daughter is innocent,” he told reporters June 9, per the Indian news outlet The Tribune. “I have trust in my daughter. She cannot do this. They got married with the consent of both families.”
E! News has reached out to a lawyer for Sonam for comment and has not heard back.
Sonam and Raja, 30, tied the knot in the Indian city of Indore on May 11, which Raja’s brother Vipin Raghuvanshi said was a reflection of their positive arranged marriage.
“Their marriage was arranged four months back and they were both happy,” he told reporters, per the BBC June 9. “There had been no fights between the couple before or after marriage.”
Four days after the couple embarked on their honeymoon May 20, they went missing, prompting a search effort from police, disaster relief teams and local citizens. Following the discovery of Raja’s body June 2 and no sign of Sonam, the pair’s families criticized the authorities and petitioned the Prime Minister of India for help.
After Sonam’s arrest, Raja’s brother Vipin initially said he would “not accept” his sister-in-law’s “involvement in the murder until she confessed.”
However, once he learned that one of the alleged accomplices was known to Sonam, he expressed his faith in authorities’ investigation. “I now believe that Meghalaya government was not lying,” he said, per the BBC. “They were telling the truth.”
