Pune realtor Ketan's murder 'for wearing wig' cited in Sonam Raghuvanshi's bail hearing in Supreme Court

THe sensory Ketan Agarwal bump off caseful from Maharashtra's Pune made its path to the sublime Court as a mention during the bail hearing of Sonam Raghuvanshi — the accused in another similar alleged crime that shook the country around the same time last year.The Supreme Court on Friday refused to send Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the alleged murder of her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during their honeymoon in Meghalaya last year, back to jail, for now, even as it expressed reservations about the Meghalaya high court order granting her bail, HT reported earlier.A bench of justices MM Sundresh and Sheel Nagu admitted the Meghalaya government's appeal challenging the June 29 high court judgment. It issued a notice to Sonam, declining to stay the bail order after learning she had been released. “Prima facie, we would have stayed the order of bail, but since she has already been released, we would not want to intervene,” observed the bench, posting the matter for further hearing on July 9.‘Husband killed for wearing wig’During the hearing, Justice Sundresh cited the Pune case in which a 20-year-old woman — Siya Goyal — is accused of killing her fiance — Ketan Agarwal — on June 18 allegedly with the help of a 22-year-old man Chetan Chaudhary, believed to her boyfriend. The woman allegedly pushed her 25-year-old fiance, a Pune realtor, by pushing him off a cliff during a trek at Lohagad Fort near Lonavala — what initially was reported to be an accidental death.As Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Meghalaya Police, argued on Friday during the hearing of Sonam Raghuvanshi's bail that “these instances have increased”, Justice Sundresh cited what he described as a “sensational case” from Karnataka's Bengaluru.“We don't want to say anything more...Introspection is required from different stakeholders,” Justice Sundresh said.To this, SG Mehta cited the Ketan Agarwal case, saying, “Recently a wife killed her husband on honeymoon on the ground that husband was wearing a wig.”We don't want to say anything, Justice Sundresh said in response.The exact motive behind the alleged crime is still being investigated, with multiple theories — mostly surrounding Siya's alleged reluctance to get married — emerging during the probe, the latest being that she was unhappy over Ketan wearing a wig.The top court on Friday indicated that while it was not impressed by the reasoning adopted by the high court, it was equally conscious of the consequences of sending an accused back to prison after release on bail. “We are conscious that howsoever grave the alleged offence is, there is a presumption of innocence,” said the bench, adding that it would consider passing appropriate orders on expediting the trial after Sonam files her response.The case relates to the murder of 29-year-old Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, who travelled to Meghalaya with Sonam after their wedding in May 2025. The couple went missing after checking out of a homestay in Nongriat on May 23. Raja's body was later recovered from a gorge near Weisawdong Falls in Sohra, while Sonam was traced days later in Uttar Pradesh.