Indore (Madhya Pradesh): As the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Sonam Raghuvanshi in Meghalaya deepens, a new development has come to light.

A tourist guide on Saturday claimed that Sonam and her husband Raja were accompanied by three Hindi-speaking male tourists on the day they went missing from Sohra area while trekking back over 3,000 steps from Double Decker Living Root Bridge in Nongriat village. The guide has also provided this information to the police.

The eyewitness, Albert Pde, the tour guide from Mawlakhiat village—the same village where the couple had parked their rented scooter on May 22—told local reporters in Shillong that he saw the couple the next morning.

“I started from the starting point around 7 am, and around 10 am, I encountered them. They were midway through the return trek from Nongriat and were accompanied by three other male tourists. Raja was walking with the three men, while Sonam was behind,” said Pde.

He mentioned that nothing seemed suspicious at the time, as the group was conversing in Hindi, a language he doesn't understand well. “If they had been speaking in English, I might have understood what they were saying,” he added.

When asked if the men with Raja seemed friendly, Pde confirmed that they did. “They were talking amongst themselves, and the girl was walking slowly behind them.” "By the time I reached Mawlakhiat, their scooter was not there," the guide claimed. He has also given his statement to the police. The newlywed's rented scooter was found at Sohrarim, several kilometres from the parking lot at Mawlakhiat with the keys latched to it.

Wanbha Mohali, the parking in-charge at Mawlakhiat where the couple had left their scooter, said he didn’t notice who collected the vehicle on May 23, as it was a busy day with many tourists.

“They didn’t leave the helmets at the counter. If they had, we might have been able to identify who took the scooter,” said Mohali.

When asked whether he had seen the three men who were with Raja, Mohali said he vaguely remembered them being on a motorcycle but couldn’t recall the number plate. He added that he noticed the scooter was gone by evening and assumed the couple had returned.