Supreme Court Defers Hearing on Meghalaya Govt's Plea Challenging Sonam Raghuvanshi's Bail

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to July 21 the hearing on the Meghalaya government's plea challenging the grant of bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime accused in the Raja Raghuvanshi honeymoon murder case. 

A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale deferred the matter after Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Meghalaya government, sought a later hearing.

The apex court initially posted the matter for hearing later in the day. However, it was subsequently adjourned and listed for further hearing on July 21.

The Meghalaya government has challenged the order granting bail to Sonam Raghuvanshi, contending that the courts below erred in treating a typographical error in the arrest documents as a fatal procedural defect.

During the previous hearing, SG Mehta had argued that it was a "very serious case" and that the written grounds of arrest had in fact been supplied to the accused.

He had submitted that the only discrepancy was that Section 403(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was mentioned instead of Section 103(1), which relates to the offence of murder. "The written grounds are also supplied. The only thing is that there is a typographical error," the Solicitor General had submitted.

However, the apex court observed that the issue was not merely whether the statutory provisions were communicated but whether the accused had been informed about the general background of the sensational case. It had directed the Meghalaya government to place on record photocopies of the original arrest memo and other documents supplied to Sonam Raghuvanshi at the time of her arrest.  (IANS)

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