The News Minute recently published a video podcast “South Central” and if one listens to this episode, it is sure to leave one speechless for the kind of discussions the speakers – Dhanya Rajendran & Pooja Prasanna have. In this article, we focus on the “angle ignored in Sonam Raghuvanshi case”. Note that it is not Raja Raghuvanshi murder case but Sonam Raghuvanshi case – as if Sonam is the victim.

As you listen in to the podcast, you realise, oh yes, Sonam is the victim, but of whom? Drum roll (but no prizes for guessing) – Patriarchy!!

So, by the end of the episode, were you naive you are highly likely to come away thinking that patriarchy is the real killer —more so than the wife who confessed to planning and executing her husband’s murder with her lover.

“It’s Never Just A Crime—It’s A Symptom Of The System”

This is the central thesis repeated throughout the episode. Dhanya Rajendran says, “We have to look beyond that on the circumstances which makes a newly married woman actually murder her newlywed husband than to stand up for herself.” On the surface, this sounds reasonable. After all, India’s social fabric is riddled with these problems. But here’s the problem: Sonam Raghuvanshi confessed to planning the murder. She didn’t just passively suffer under patriarchy—she actively chose to kill her husband.

By framing the story primarily as a “patriarchy problem,” The News Minute effectively shifts blame away from the perpetrators. It’s as if the wife and her lover are victims of circumstance, rather than criminals who made a cold, calculated decision. One panelist even questions, “What drives a woman to such extremes?”—as if the answer lies solely in oppressive social structures, ignoring the agency, motive, and responsibility of the accused.

The Hypocrisy of Selective Outrage

Imagine if the genders were reversed. If a husband had murdered his wife to be with his girlfriend, would the media be scrambling to explain his actions as a result of “societal expectations”? Or would they (rightly) call it cold-blooded murder?

The truth is, feminism is about equality—not excusing female criminals while demanding maximum punishment for male ones. Dhanya quotes an article by some Priya Ramani on The Quint, titled “Meghalaya Murder Is What Happens When You Criminalise Love In India” blaming Sonam’s parents also for the crime. Dhanya says, “It’s not just Sonam Raghuvanshi who should be blamed for the crime that she allegedly did, but it’s also her parents, it’s also society which does not allow her to choose her partner.”

But this logic is absurd. Millions of women face arranged marriages—they don’t resort to murder. If Sonam was unhappy, she could have protested in such a way she could convince her parents not to proceed with the marriage, she was financially independent. If all this failed, she could have left Raja Raghuvanshi’s life or sought a divorce instead of plotting and staging a honeymoon murder!

By suggesting that patriarchy “made her do it,” Dhanya and her gang are essentially arguing that women lack agency—which is actually insulting to women everywhere.

What’s most disturbing is how quickly people like Dhanya sensationalize crimes against women but downplay or excuse female perpetrators. When a man kills his wife, it’s “toxic masculinity” or “patriarchal entitlement.” When a woman kills her husband, suddenly it’s “society’s fault” and once again “patriarchy.”

This isn’t feminism—it’s hypocrisy.

Caste & Honour Killing

Dhanya and Pooja then come to the second, if not equally favourite topic of discussion after patriarchy – Caste. They point out that Sonam’s family belongs to the Rajput community, while her lover, Raj, is from an OBC community. According to them, this difference in caste, along with class distinctions (Raj was also Sonam’s employee), created a situation where Sonam was not allowed to choose her own partner and was instead forced into marriage with Raja Raghuvanshi.

Dhanya compares this murder to “honour killings”. She says, “This is the first time perhaps in the recent past that we have seen a woman plotting this kind of a murder. But this happens all the time right, we call them honor killings. I personally have a huge problem calling them honor killings because those murders have nothing to do with honor, but those killings whether it’s caste killings or dishonor killings – those are mostly done by the families where a man and a woman perhaps coming from two different castes or two different religions marry each other, one family does not approve and we do see quotations being given, murders being committed by the family members themselves, perhaps this one made a lot more headlines because it was the not the family, but the woman who plotted the murder.”

How does Sonam killing her newlywed husband equal or even comparable to honour killing?

Both speakers go on to argue that these caste and class barriers are integral to understanding the context in which the crime occurred, suggesting that the inability to marry across caste lines and the resulting forced marriage set the stage for the tragedy. Mindblowing stuff, right?

Agency Erased, Accountability Diluted

Sonam’s confession and the police investigation clearly establish her role in the murder. Yet, Dhanya and Pooja repeatedly circle back to systemic issues, sometimes at the expense of the victim’s story and the truth of the crime. But here’s the inconvenient truth: the crime was planned, executed, and covered up. The wife and her lover fled, only surrendering when the net closed in. This is not a spontaneous act of desperation forced by patriarchy; this is premeditated murder. To obscure this fact by focusing on “patriarchy” as the root cause is to dilute justice.

The Danger Of Over-Contextualizing

Context matters. No one is denying that. But when context becomes a shield that excuses or rationalizes criminal behavior, it becomes a problem. The News Minute’s approach honestly infantilizes women, denies them moral agency, and ultimately reinforces stereotypes that women are helpless victims of their environment.

If patriarchy truly explains this murder, then what about the lover? What about the conscious decisions made by both individuals? The podcast barely addresses these questions. Instead, it leans heavily into the narrative that “patriarchy made her do it,” which feels less like analysis and more like a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Justice For The Victim?

Raja Raghuvanshi’s murder deserves more than sociological speculation. It deserves justice. The victim’s life was brutally cut short by people who chose to commit a heinous crime. Portals like The News Minute prioritize abstract social debates over the facts of a case, they risk sidelining the victim’s story and the demands of justice – because it is important for them to make everything about patriarchy and caste. 

The question is not whether to judge Sonam why she committed the crime, but how to ensure that justice is served fairly and fully. Blaming patriarchy instead of the murderers does neither.

Murder is murder, regardless of the perpetrator’s gender or background. By shifting blame to “patriarchy,” the media is doing a disservice to real victims of oppression while giving a free pass to a calculated killer.

It’s acold-blooded crime and just that. And no amount of woke rhetoric should change that.

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