the Supreme Court refused to refused to overturn Maghalaya high court’s judgement which granted bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi who is accused of killing her husband Raja Raghuvanshi during honeymoon in the northeastern state in 2025.




A partial working days bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Sheel Nagu observed that Sonam Raghuvanshi had already been released from jail and was currently in Shillong in accordance with the bail conditions imposed by the trial court.

Sonam was granted bail on April 27 after a clerical error played a key role.

The FIR in the case was registered under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with murder.




However, when Sonam was informed of the grounds for her arrest, the police cited Section 403(1) of the BNS instead.

Section 403(1) does not exist in the BNS and under the old Indian Penal Code, Section 403 related to dishonest misappropriation of property, but that provision was not carried over into the BNS.

The trial court found that the error was not limited to a single document. The incorrect section was mentioned in multiple records, including the arrest memo, checklist justifying the arrest, inspection memo, intimation of rights and case diary extract.




Rejecting the prosecution’s argument that it was merely a clerical mistake, the court observed that such an error appearing across several documents could not be brushed aside.

It held that Sonam had not been properly informed of the grounds of her arrest, a legal right guaranteed to every arrested person, and granted her bail.