'VILE AND DECEITFUL, CRUEL AND MEAN'

It was meant to be a honeymoon, a new beginning, and a celebration. But by the time it ended, a young man was dead, his body lying in a gorge near the remote waterfalls of Meghalaya. And what appeared to be a romantic getaway had revealed itself as one of the most chillingly premeditated murders in recent memory.

- ANURAAG SINGH

On May 11, Raja Raghuvanshi, a 29-year-old transporter from Indore, married Sonam Raghuvanshi in a traditional community ceremony. Eleven days later, on May 23, he was ambushed and killed during what could have been the most joyful phase of his new life. His murder wasn't the result of a sudden argument or a moment of passion. Rather, it had been carefully planned weeks in advance and executed with chilling calm.

The plan was simple in structure but cold in detail: lure Raja on a honeymoon far from home, isolate him in an unfamiliar terrain, and kill him in a location so remote that the police would struggle to find the truth.

The honeymoon idea came from Sonam herself, who had proposed the seven-day trip to Assam and Meghalaya as a wedding gift. Raja had agreed, unaware that the woman who now shared his new life had already set his death in motion.