Meghalaya murder mystery | What happened before they vanished? Inside the tourist couple’s last 12 hours

The 12 hours that a Madhya Pradesh couple spent at East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya's Nongriat village while visiting the famous double-decker living root bridge have now been explained, say investigators who interviewed the villagers and recorded their statements.

Newlywed couple Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife Sonam visited certain locations on their honeymoon in Meghalaya before they disappeared on May 23. While Raja Raghuvanshi's body was found in a gorge on June 2, his wife is still missing.

Police and even National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are combing the area for Sonam, whose family members told that they are sure she would have been kidnapped and have not given up hopes of tracing her.

The couple stayed in a guesthouse in Meghalaya's capital city Shillong on May 21. They rented a scooty the following day and rode to popular tourist destination Sohra (Cherrapunji). Having arrived at Mawlakhiat village in East Khasi Hills, they left the scooty in a parking facility operated by the local community for tourists, and hired a local guide to trek to a homestay at Nongriat village in the same district.

The guide who accompanied them on the trek from Mawlakhiat to Nongriat said it is almost three hours and includes going down about 3,000 steps.

"The couple called us on May 22. It was late, around 3.30 pm, but I didn't refuse and agreed to guide them to Nongriat. After leaving them at Shipara Homestay, we left," the guide Bhakupar Wanshai said, while another guide, Albert Pde, also joined them.

"We provided service for the following day (May 23), but they declined, mentioning that they know the route," Wanshai added.

Wanshai in his police report said that Sonam did most of the negotiations with them in English. The couple and the two guides arrived at Shipara Homestay at Nongriat village at 5.30 pm, the homestay owner woman said.

"Two guests visited here (Shipara Homestay) on May 22. They arrived accompanied by guides. I do not remember the exact time. but it might have been about 5 pm. When they arrived here, I showed them to the room, and they agreed to stay. While we sat here, they inquired about the room tariff as well as the guide fee, and when to settle the payment, to which I responded, 'today'," explained the homestay owner Sianti Sohkhlet.

She said the couple declined the guide's service for the next day. "I took the money and asked them to sign in the register, and showed them to their room. They checked in and went off to view the living root bridges after they had locked the room. They came back after some time. It was already dark. We cooked food and served it to their room. They ate and went to bed," Sohkhlet said.

Shipara Homestay is just near the double-decker living root bridge in Nongriat. "The next morning, I woke up around 5.30 am. The couple said they would check out early, so I asked if they would like to have breakfast. They refused, saying it was too early and they were not hungry," said the homestay owner.

"They paid the food and checked out. I enquired whether they would remember how to get back, and they told me they would, pointing towards the stairs and then left ," Sohkhlet further added.

The couple left the homestay at 6 am on May 23. The last individual to have seen the couple was guide Albert Pde.

During interrogation by the state police, he said that he saw the couple at 10 am climbing the 3,000 steps to Mawlakhiat village with three men whom he took for tourists.

The couple vanished from there.