A 27-year-old former model from Punjab and ex-girlfriend of gangster Sandeep Gadoli was shot dead in a hotel in Gurugram, Haryana, months after she was granted bail in the gangster’s murder case.
According to the police, the victim, Divya Pahuja, was allegedly taken to a hotel in Gurugram by the owner and his associates on Tuesday night, where she was shot in the head.
According to officials from Gurugram’s Sector 14 police station, they received a complaint from Pahuja’s family that she had gone out with her friend Abhijeet Singh and had gone missing. They informed the police that Singh owned Hotel City Point in Gurugram and that Pahuja’s phone had been switched off for several hours, NDTV reported.
When police reached the hotel and checked the CCTV footage, they saw a body wrapped in a sheet being dragged down a corridor. Three people, including prime suspect Abhijeet, and two others (Omprakash and Hemraj) were arrested by the Gurugram Crime Branch on Wednesday.
Also Read: ‘Dead man’ returns home in Goa
What we know so far?
Both Omprakash and Hemraj used to work in Abhijeet’s hotel. They were nabbed by the police as they were caught on CCTV taking her body from the hotel in a car to dump it.
The footage from the night showed Abhijeet, the former model, and another person arriving at the hotel reception on January 2 (Tuesday) at around 4 am and proceeding to room number 111.
Later at night, Abhijeet and others were seen dragging Divya’s body.
Another CCTV footage showed the three accused dragging Divya’s body wrapped in a sheet from the hotel to the BMW car at 10.45 pm on Tuesday. According to an official, Singh had allegedly paid his two associates Rs 10 lakh to dump the body somewhere it would not be found.
The Gurugram Police, based on CCTV footage, are investigating the murder, with several teams from the Crime Branch conducting raids in Punjab and other areas to locate the body.
Abhijeet and others were booked based on the complaint filed by Divya’s family.
Meanwhile, the police said Pahuja was shot dead by the hotel owner allegedly because she extorted money from him after blackmailing him with ‘obscene pictures’, ANI reported.
Gangster connection
Divya Pahuja’s association with the underworld began in 2016 when she was just 18 years old. The Mumbai Police arrested her on charges of facilitating the alleged fake encounter of Sandeep Gadoli, her then-boyfriend and a dreaded gangster, in a hotel near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in 2016.
The encounter, conducted by Haryana Police, drew scrutiny, resulting in the arrest of several police officials and Divya, for allegedly revealing the gangster’s whereabouts.
After spending seven years in jail, Divya was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in June 2023. The court cited her prolonged incarceration and the expected lengthy trial as grounds for her release.