New CCTV clip shows Raja & Sonam at hotel
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The footage shows the honeymooners depositing their bags in a hotel before going towards Double Decker Bridge on May 21. Both of them are in raincoats.
The couple is seen arriving at 12:42pm on the same two-wheeler that was later found abandoned. Sonam is in a white T-shirt and black trousers under a black-and-pink raincoat. A white shirt was found next to Raja's body and a similar raincoat a few days later in the vicinity though neither has been confirmed to be hers.
Raja is seen requesting the manager to allow them to leave their luggage at the hotel while they go to visit Double-Decker Bridge. Sonam puts her raincoat in the boot of the two-wheeler. They transfer a few clothes from their suitcases into a carry bagand head off. They look cheerful and carefree.
At 12:45pm, a red hatchback arrives and stops at a short distance. Two minutes later, two men step out of the car and enter the hotel.
One of them is seen making entries on the computer, while the other makes a phone call. At 12:56 the couple leave on their two wheeler.
Sonam's family members don't think the raincoat found by police is hers. "It's 3XL and it is not clear if she was wearing the same raincoat," said Govind, who has been camping in Shillong.
Police are examining the footage but the two families feel Meghalaya cops aren't doing enough to find Sonam or trace Raja's killers.
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Govind said: "We were the ones who found this viral CCTV footage. If a common man can do this, why can't police?" He had earlier said that Meghalaya police should "stop looking for a body". "My sister was abducted. We fear she has been trafficked to Bangladesh," he had told TOI.
Meghalaya officials say police, SDERF and NDRF teams, have been braving treacherous terrain and harsh weather in their search for Sonam. "Police don't take us to witness the search operation.
I am going on my own. They are just completing formalities in the name of searching. For the past three days, they have been searching just 50 metres on either side of a 10km road," he said.
"If the body were to be found on a road like that, wouldn't it have come to light in 16 days? Even a five-year-old can understand that. Sohra police are just killing time so that our patience breaks, we leave, and the news stops coming in the media," Govind told TOI.
According to local media reports in Meghalaya, a guide in Sohra has told police that he saw Raja and Sonam with three men before the couple went missing. They were talking in Hindi and seemed friendly, the reports said.
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