Supreme Court refuses to stay Meghalaya High Court order granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi

The Supreme Court on Friday (July 3, 2026) sought a response from Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the alleged murder of her husband, Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, on a petition filed by the State government challenging the grant of bail to her.

A Bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and Sheel Nagu, however, declined to stay the June 29 order of the Meghalaya High Court, which had upheld a Shillong trial court’s decision granting bail to Ms. Raghuvanshi on the ground that the police had failed to effectively communicate the grounds of her arrest.

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While the Bench observed that the allegations against the accused were “quite serious” and indicated that it had “reservations” about the High Court’s reasoning, it was not inclined to stay the bail order after Ms. Raghuvanshi had already been released from judicial custody.

Appearing for the State, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta described the case as a “shocking” instance of premeditated murder. He submitted that the grounds of arrest had, in fact, been served on Ms. Raghuvanshi and argued that the High Court ought not to have granted bail on the basis of what he described as a “typographical error”.

The Bench issued notice on the State’s plea and posted the matter for further hearing on July 9.