Divya Pahuja, a former model who was an accused in a gangster’s murder case in Mumbai, was shot dead in a hotel in Gurugram, a city near New Delhi, on Tuesday, just months after she was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
According to the police, five people were allegedly involved in the killing of the 27-year-old, who was shot in the head.
Three of the accused, including the hotel owner Abhijeet Singh, have been nabbed.
The hotel’s CCTV footage showed them carrying the body to a BMW car. Police said Abhijeet later called two of his acquaintances, who dumped it, reported The Times of India.
Abhijeet, according to NDTV, told police that Divya had been extorting money from him by threatening to expose him over his nude photos. Her family, though, vehemently denied the accusation.
Divya’s sister Naina made a police report on Wednesday alleging that Abhijeet was paid by gangster Sandeep Gadoli’s family members – sister Sudesh Kataria and brother Brahm Prakash Kataria – to kill her.
Gadoli was Gurugram’s most-wanted gangster, who was shot dead by the Haryana Police in a hotel near Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in 2016.
The Mumbai police later arrested Divya, who was Gadoli’s girlfriend, for playing a role in the “staged” killing.
They also arrested her mother and five Haryana policemen who allegedly killed the gangster.
Investigations showed that Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar, the leader of a rival gang who was in prison at the time of the murder plot, conspired with Haryana Police officers to eliminate Gadoli, and Divya was the honey trap. She had revealed the gangster’s whereabouts to the Haryana Police.
Divya spent seven years in jail, before the Bombay High Court granted her bail last June. The court cited her prolonged incarceration and the expected lengthy trial as grounds for her release.
Gururgram Police spokesman Subhash Boken told Press Trust of India on Wednesday: “Accused Abhijeet said on Jan 2 that he took Divya to Hotel City Point (in Gurugram) as he wanted to delete his obscene photos from her phone. But Divya did not give him the password of her phone. Due to which Abhijeet shot dead Divya.
“He then, along with Hemraj and Om Prakash, who worked as cleaning and reception workers in the hotel, carried the body to Abhijeet’s BMW.
“After that, Abhijeet called his two other associates and gave them his car to dispose of the body. Our teams are conducting raids to nab the other accused and recover the body.”
Indo-Asian News Service
