Honeymoon murder: Caterer approaches cops over unpaid dues from Raja Raghuvanshi-Sonam wedding

A dispute over unpaid catering charges from the wedding of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, whose life ended in a killing during his honeymoon trip to Meghalaya, landed at a local police station on Tuesday. The vendor who handled the wedding food arrangements sought official intervention to recover dues amounting to Rs 2.82 lakh, an official confirmed. He said repeated efforts to settle the matter directly with the two families had gone nowhere, with each side pointing fingers at the other. Officers, however, refused to act, describing the matter as a civil disagreement falling outside their remit.

What happened to Raja Raghuvanshi

Raja Raghuvanshi and his wife, Sonam, had set off for Meghalaya on their honeymoon in May 2025, only days after their marriage. Raja was killed during that trip. Investigators in Meghalaya went on to arrest Sonam, along with her alleged partner in the affair, Raj Kushwaha, and three individuals allegedly hired to commit the murder.

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How much money do the families owe the caterer

Hitesh Rohira, who runs a catering business in Indore, told PTI that he had been hired jointly by the families on both sides for the wedding function, under an agreement worth Rs 11,42,550 in total. Of this, he said, Rs 8,60,000 had been paid, leaving Rs 2,82,550 still owed to him.

Rohira said he had repeatedly followed up with Vipin Raghuvanshi, Raja's elder brother, and Govind Raghuvanshi, Sonam's elder brother, over the balance, only to have each blame the other for the delay. A legal notice, sent through his lawyer on April 1, also failed to produce results, he added.

According to Rohira, he visited the Dwarkapuri police station to lodge a formal complaint against the two brothers, but no case was filed. Manish Mishra, the officer in charge of the station, said when asked that a monetary dispute of this nature between two private parties was civil in character and did not require police involvement.

Vipin Raghuvanshi rejected any liability, saying it was Govind who had originally hired the caterer and that his side of the family owed nothing. Govind Raghuvanshi countered that the bill had largely been cleared already. He also questioned why the vendor had stayed silent for so long, suggesting the complaint, coming almost 15 months after the wedding, was an attempt to gain attention rather than a legitimate grievance.

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Raja and Sonam had been reported missing during their Meghalaya honeymoon last year before Raja's body turned up in a gorge close to a waterfall in the Sohra area, also called Cherrapunji, within East Khasi Hills district. Sonam was taken into custody in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, on June 9, 2025, accused of plotting with Kushwaha and three hired men to have her husband killed. She spent upward of ten months in judicial custody at Shillong before securing bail. That bail order was later reversed by the Supreme Court on July 23, with the court instructing her to surrender to police within a three-week window.