'Not seen in Meghalaya before': Honeymoon that ended in missing wife, dead man

A newlywed couple—hailing from Indore in Madhya Pradesh—arrived at Mawlakhiat village on May 22 on a rented scooter. They were on their honeymoon.

They parked their scooter and trekked 3,000 steps down the gorge to visit the famous living root bridges at Nongriat village, where they stayed the night and left the homestay the following morning.

Raghuvanshi (29) and his wife, Sonam, went missing on May 23, hours after they checked out of a homestay at Nongriat village in the Sohra area.

His body was found in a gorge 20 km from the village, while a search is underway for his wife. On May 24, their scooter was found abandoned at a cafe along the road from Shillong to Sohra.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said his government will leave no stone unturned to ensure that those behind the crime are brought to justice. “We will leave no stone unturned to make sure that those responsible for this incident are brought to justice,” said Sangma.

The Raghuvanshi family has demanded a CBI probe. Terming the incident as very unfortunate, Sangma also described it as something “nobody had seen in Meghalaya before”.

“It has taken all of us by surprise and shock. The local people and stakeholders in the tourism industry are very shocked and concerned. This is something we never expected would happen,” he stated.

Stating that Meghalaya has always been a tourist-friendly state, Sangma said, “We have always ensured the safety of tourists. In the last few years, lakhs of tourists have visited the state. So, this incident is something very out of the ordinary for us.”

“My deepest condolences to the family members. I know it's a great loss for them, but I want to assure them that we are working overtime to get to the facts and the depth of really what happened... as of now, we are not very clear what the sequence of events was, what happened, how it happened,” he said. With PTI inputs