FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 14 No. 358 | BHOPAL | WEDNESDAY | JUNE 11, 2025 | | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN MONEY Sports Priyanka powers through penalty and fever to clinch 10km race walk gold P.12 PUNE INDORE NASHIK Cinema Vishal Pandey’s Cannes disaster P.14 RAJA MURDER CASE | An 8-Day Sim caught investigator’s eye, Sonam’s alleged love interest spilled the beans detailing a money laundering racket, gory murder that has shocked the state SIM of DEATH Sonam’s Raj of Hawala Sachin Sharma On the morning of May 16, a mobile number silently came to life in Indore. The same day, Sonam Raghuvanshi booked a honeymoon trip to Meghalaya with her husband, Raja Raghuvanshi. What seemed like the beginning of a romantic getaway ended in a murder that sent shockwaves across the country. Eight days later, on May 24, the mobile number was switched off in Bihar. That was just one day after Raja was found dead in Shillong. What connected the dots for the Shillong police was this very SIM card — a digital ghost trail that led them straight to the alleged killers. Sonam was in constant touch with this mobile number till May 24. Suspicious of her call records, Investigators in Shillong alerted their Indore counterpart. And, the hunt began. As pressure mounted police of both states was running against time to crack the case. Soon, a man named Raj Kushwaha was picked up. He cracked under questioning thus spilling the beans. Raj, it was found, had acted as a key link between Sonam and the murderers. His confession led to the arrest of two from Indore, one from Bina and ‘If they are deep in Pak, we will go deep into Pak’ Aman Sharma INDORE Sonam Raghuvanshi at Phulwari Sharif Police Station, in Patna on Tuesday JUICE BEFORE JUSTICE fresh twist emerged in the honeymoon murder case when a woman from Varanasi called Raja’s brother Vipin Raghuwanshi with a startling claim: she had seen Sonam, days before her surrender in Ghazipur, sharing juice with two men at the Varanasi bus stand. “She looked cheerful, dressed in black,” the caller said. “The men dropped her off on a bus to Ghazipur. She may have gotten down at Nandganj.” The woman, in Varanasi for a relative’s last rites, believes Sonam wasn’t fleeing — she was being escorted. Now, Raja’s family wants police to scan CCTV footage to identify the two men and verify the claim — adding yet another layer to this unfolding mystery. A another from Lalitpur. CHILLING REVELATION: The SIM card was deliberately bought from Indore to stay under the radar — far from the crime scene — and to build a channel of secret communication that wouldn’t raise any suspicion. According to police, the accused fled to Bihar immediately after Raja’s murder, thinking the silence of a switched-off phone would bury their crime. But it was this very silence that roared the loudest in the investigation. AUSTRIA SCHOOL SHOOTING KILLS 9 PTI As the mystery of Raja Raghuvanshi’s murder deepens, shocking revelations point to a chilling nexus of love, betrayal and black money. Raj Singh Kushwaha, one of the prime accused—and allegedly Sonam’s secret lover—has reportedly confessed to running a hawala racket for her. Sources say he handled the entire financial operation, even gaining access to her bedroom, a fact known to her family. Their bond, born of long hours managing illicit cash, soon turned personal. Police have traced over 100 suspicious transactions and 4Continued on | P8 NEW DELHI ChatGPT’s global outage OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT suffered an outage on Tuesday, as users across the world, including in India, were facing problems with loading and accessing results to prompts. The company said there are "elevated error rates and latency" that users have been experiencing on various AI platforms. AP GRAZ (AUSTRIA) A former student opened fire at a school in Austria's second-biggest city on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding at least 12 others before taking his own life, authorities said. There was no immediate information on the motive of the 21-year-old man, who wasn't previously known to police. He had two weapons, which he appeared to have owned legally, police said. Special forces were among those sent to the BORG Dreierschutzengasse high school, about a kilometre from Graz's historic centre, after a call at 10 a.m. At 11.30 a.m., police wrote on social network X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point. Police said they didn't immediately have information on the man's motive, but said that he killed himself in a toilet after fatally shooting nine people. The shooter was a former student at the school who didn't finish his studies, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a press conference in Graz. 4Continued on | P8 n Mohan Yadav, n Conrad K Sangma, CM Madhya Pradesh Meghalaya CM date for transfers till June 17 Our Staff Reporter The state government has again extended the date for the transfer of officials. At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the ministers urged Chief Minister Mohan Yadav to extend the date for transfers. Yadav initially refused it, but as the portal for transfer is yet to be prepared, he has agreed to extend the date till June 17. Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said he, too, was opposed to extending the date for transfers. Because other ministers requested it, the date for transferring officials was extended, he said. The ban on transfers was initially lifted from May 1 to 31, but the date was extended up to June 10, and now, the date has been extended for the third time. More than 40 days have passed since the ban on transfer was lifted, but the transfer list is yet to be prepared. This is the reason that the chief minister had to extend the date for transfer further. Fertility drops below replacement rate PTI NEW DELHI India's population is estimated to reach 1.46 billion in 2025, continuing to be the highest in the world, according to a new UN demographic report, which also revealed the country's total fertility rate has fallen below the replacement rate. UNFPA's 2025 State of World Population (SOWP) Report, The Real Fertility Crisis, calls for a shift from panic over falling fertility to addressing unmet reproductive goals. Millions of people are not able to realise their real fertil- ity goals, it asserts. This is the real crisis, not underpopulation or overpopulation, and the answer lies in greater reproductive agency - a person's ability to make free and informed 150 per cent choices about sex, contraception and starting a family, it says. The report also reveals key shifts in population composition, fertility, and life expectancy, signalling a major demographic transition. The report found that India's total fertility rate has declined to 1.9 births per woman, falling below the replacement level of 2.1. Even more disturbing— just two days after Raja’s murder, Sonam visited Indore on May 25, stayed near Dewas Naka, and met Raj. She later slipped away to Varanasi in a taxi on May 27, after staying in Indore for two days. East Khasi Hills SP Vivek Syiem confirmed, “Sonam moved from train to train, stayed in a rented house in Indore, and later fled to UP—always in touch with Raj.” T BHOPAL Rescue service personnel at the scene of a shooting at a school in Graz, Austria Sonam was in Indore on May 25 es, we would like the judicial process to be completed as swiftly as possible. Whatever steps are required to facilitate this from our side as a government, we will do that and try to ensure that the trial progresses quickly BRUSSELS India would strike deep into Pakistan if provoked by terrorist attacks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has warned, asserting that there will be retribution against the terrorist outfits and their leaders in case of barbaric acts like the Pahalgam attack. "We are not going to live with it. So our message to them is that if you continue to do the kind of barbaric acts which they did in April, then there is going to be retribution, and that retribution will be against the terrorist organisations and the terrorist leadership," he told Politico on Monday. "We don't care where they are. If they are deep in Pakistan, we will go deep into Pakistan," he added. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 which claimed 26 lives. India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7. WhatsApp images of Rs 10 notes, believed to be part of the racket. Sonam’s father owns an HPL sheets business, under which Raj allegedly laundered money. he Sonam RaghuvanshiRaja Raghuvanshi incident is not only a painful incident but a lesson to the society. It teaches us several lessons. When two families come together through marriage, things need to be taken care of very minutely. Letting children go so far also needs to be thought about. I am hurt by this incident Cabinet extends This means that, on average, Indian women are having fewer children than needed to maintain the population size from one generation to the next, without migration. Despite the slowing birth rate, India's youth population remains significant, with 24 per cent in the age bracket of 0-14, 17 per cent in 10-19, and 26 per cent in 10-24. The country's 68 per cent of the population is of working age (15-64), providing a potential demographic dividend, if matched by adequate employment and policy support. 4Continued on | P8 E-paper Edit Manipur needs peace & answers P.6 Inflow into equity MFs hits 13-mth low at `19,000 cr in May INDORE MUMBAI Y Benefits for SC/ST staff if general category post vacant A presentation has been made before cabinet Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The state government is doing exercises to lift the ten-yearold ban on promotion. At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the General Administration Department (GAD) made a presentation of various formulas before the cabinet for restarting promotion. The GAD informed the cabinet that various alternatives had been prepared for promotion. The option to which the cabinet will give its nod will be presented before the cabinet. A seniority list of general-category employees and that of the SC/ST category will be prepared. The elevation will be done on the basis of vacancies. According to the formula, if a post of the general category falls vacant, SC/ST candidates will be promoted on the grounds of their seniority. In case there is a vacancy in the SC/ST category, the posts will remain vacant. In terms of seniority, the employees of the SC/ST category will get the benefits of this formula. The vacant posts for promotion will be doubled, and the committee will mull over the candidatures of four employees. 4Continued on | P8 Rahul doesn’t believe anyone, says CM Yadav Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The Leader of Opposition of Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, doesn’t believe anyone and goes on to speak about his achievements, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said on Tuesday.  Addressing a press conference as a part of the celebration of 11 years of the Modi government at the Centre, the CM pointed out that since Independence, government schemes were named after members of one family, and for a long time, the party president also came from that family. Talking about Operation Sindoor, he said the Indian Army went deep inside Pakistan to destroy the terror network, and it was the neighbour who requested a ‘POVERTY RATE DOWN’ BJP state President V.D. Sharma said that the Modi government has provided a secure economy. Everyone has seen what a success the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has been, he said. The World Bank report shows that the poverty rate of India has slipped to 5.3% from 27.1%, he noted. ceasefire; PM Modi did not say theOperation has ended. He said the warfare has changed drastically from the traditional wars wherein soldiers used to cross the border and another country. Now, modern technology, such as drones, is used to target the enemy nation. 4Continued on | P8 CM Mohan Yadav addresses reporters on Tuesday. BJP state president VD Sharma was also present