New Delhi, June 9 (IANS) As the Indore couple Raja Raghuvanshi and Sonam Raghuvanshi on a honeymoon trip to the Northeastern state met with a devastating fate, the Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, on Monday, sought to fight off the ‘negative perception’ that the state got, in wake of ‘murder’ of the couple.

Conrad Sangma, in a special interaction with IANS, said that he felt disheartened and pained to see the state get bad press over alleged murder of the newly-weds while on honeymoon trip to his state.

He added that Meghalaya is a peace-loving region and people here treat tourists as their brothers and guests and therefore no one should have any doubts or apprehensions about their security here.

Sharing insights on the murder mystery, he said that Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav also spoke to him days ago, about the couple going missing and demanded urgent action.

“Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister spoke to me before the Indore couple went missing. He requested me to expedite the search for the missing couple. It’s after the conversation that the husband’s body was discovered. I also spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and assured that the police team was probing the matter and soon the missing mystery will be solved,” he told IANS.

The recovery of the husband’s body from a deep gorge and the arrest of wife Sonam Raghuvanshi from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur on Monday morning added a fresh twist to the incident.

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that there were bits and pieces of evidence which broadly hinted at wrongdoing by the non-locals and asserted that the Meghalaya Police will soon take the ‘honeymoon murder’ to its logical conclusion.

Further, dismissing concerns of the Northeastern state being ‘unsafe’ for travellers, he said that Meghalaya is a tourism state and the residents here treat the pilgrims and tourists with much respect.

“One need not get anxious and disheartened with this one-off incident. I assure everyone that Meghalaya is peaceful region and our government will take more steps to improve the experience of tourists,” he added.

Raja Raghuvanshi (29) and his wife Sonam (24) — newlyweds from Indore — went to Meghalaya for their honeymoon on May 21.

Three days later, they went missing and on June 2, after days of search, Raja Raghuvanshi’s body was recovered from a gorge in East Khasi Hills.

His body bore multiple wounds, indicating murder.

–IANS

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