Overview

• Sonam Raghuvanshi was transported to Meghalaya for a crime reconstruction that authorities consider critical to advancing her husband’s murder investigation.
• Similar cases in recent months involve at least five women from small towns accused of conspiring with partners or others to kill their husbands after brief marriages or during honeymoons.
• Criminologists cite double deviance theory to explain why women who commit serious offenses face harsher societal condemnation for violating both legal statutes and gender norms.
• National Crime Records Bureau figures show that in 2022 India recorded over 445,000 crimes against women but did not categorize offenses committed by women due to their rarity.
• Activists and psychologists warn that sensational headlines and memes overshadow underlying issues of intimate partner violence and the emotional and social pressures that can drive these crimes.