Meghalaya honeymoon murder: Man from Rajasthan, who posed as Raja Raghuvanshi friend to dupe family, arrested

So, when a man in a railway police uniform appeared at Raja’s residence on Thursday, claiming to be a Station House Officer who wanted to offer condolences, the family’s radar was already up.

The imposter’s mistake? Claiming he had befriended Raja at Ujjain’s Mahakal Temple in 2021, during the Covid lockdown. Except that Raja never travelled during the pandemic.

Within hours, the fake cop found himself in a real police station, and his elaborate costume of three-star insignia, RPF badge, and regulation red shoes was seized by the Indore police.

Police have arrested the man, identified as Bajrang Lal from Rajasthan, who they say had mined social media coverage of the murder to craft his backstory. “This is not his first time impersonating a police officer. We are looking into his previous criminal record. He had researched the murder case and tried to dupe the family. He has been arrested and booked,” said a senior police officer.

After Lal arrived on August 14 at the Raghuvanshi household, Raja’s mother Uma alerted his brother, Sachin, that a policeman was making enquiries about the case. Sachin and other relatives rushed to their home and found Lal, who claimed that he was “Raja’s friend” and was “currently posted in Delhi, but previously stationed in Ujjain two years ago”, Sachin told the police.

The story seemed plausible at first. He said he had met Raja in 2021 at the famous Mahakal Temple in Ujjain. But the grieving brother immediately remembered Raja had stayed at home during the lockdown.

Confronted with this inconsistency, Lal began “changing his story,” according to the police report.

When pressed for identification, the imposter did produce an ID card, but when asked for his phone number, he claimed he “doesn’t remember”.

The family’s patience was wearing thin. When they threatened to contact the local police station, Lal’s composure cracked. According to the police, he “started getting nervous and said he had come to share the grief of Raja’s death with the family”, trying to portray his visit as a condolence call.

He then sought to leave the house. Sensing something was wrong, Sachin called his friends to the house. Soon, the jig was up.

“Using information from social media about my brother Raja’s murder, he came to my house to mislead me and my family. My brother Raja had never mentioned knowing any railway police TI,” Sachin told the police.

Raja Raghuvanshi was killed during his honeymoon in Meghalaya in May. The crime was allegedly orchestrated by his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, who was in a relationship with Raj Kushwaha. She allegedly plotted the murder before their wedding, arranged for a machete to be bought online, and hired three men to carry out the killing. After several failed attempts, the assailants fatally attacked Raja near Wei Sawdong Falls on May 23. His decomposed body was recovered on June 2, and all five accused are now in judicial custody.

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