The murder of a honeymooning tourist from Madhya Pradesh in Meghalaya has revived calls for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the northeastern state to regulate the flow of visitors.

The ILP is a time-bound travel document that Indians need to visit Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur.

The demand was raised at a protest in Shillong, organised by resident Mary Victoria Marwein, against attempts to malign Meghalaya in the aftermath of the murder of Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, 30, during a honeymoon trip to the state. His wife Sonam, 25, is the key accused.

The couple had arrived in Shillong on May 22, and Raja was murdered a day later. Police suspect Sonam and her lover Raj Singh Khushwaha of having hired contract killers to eliminate Raja, whose decomposed body was spotted on June 2 in a gorge near the Wei Sawdong waterfalls in Sohra.

Sonam, Raj and three other suspects have been arrested since Monday.

Condemning the murder committed by people from outside the state, Mary told the media they were concerned about the negative publicity that Meghalaya was getting. She feared it might affect people from the state working or pursuing studies outside.

Representatives of pressure groups, civil society organisations and prominent citizens joined the three-hour protest at Police Bazar (Khyndai Lad) that beganaround noon.

Roy Kupar Synrem, president of the Hynniewtrep Youth Council, told The Telegraph that they took part in the protest to demand an “apology from all those people and media houses who have blamed, accused and humiliated us in the last few days”.

“We are also demanding the immediate implementation of the ILP in the state so that we have a system and records of all people entering the state. It will act as a deterrent to criminal activities,” Roy said.

Sonam Raghuvanshi, the Indore woman accused of plotting her husband’s murder during their honeymoon in Meghalaya, being brought for medical examination at a hospital, in Ghazipur. PTI

The Meghalaya Assembly had in December 2019 adopted a unanimous resolution on the implementation of the ILP, but the issue is hanging fire.

The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO), headed by Roy, said in a statement that “a distressing misinformation campaign” had followed Raja’s death and the disappearance — and subsequent reappearance — of Sonam.

“We also renew our constitutional, legal and moral demand for the immediate implementation of the ILP system in Meghalaya. The ILP is not merely a regulatory mechanism, it is a protective framework to preserve the social, cultural and territorial sanctity of indigenous people — a framework that would have pre-empted the chaos, confusion and defamation that engulfed our state over the past few weeks,” the CoMSO statement added.