“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.”
