New Delhi: Police in Haryana’s Gurugram have arrested three including a hotel owner in connection with the murder of 27-year-old former model Divya Pahuja — an accused in the 2016 ‘staged encounter’ of her rumoured partner, gangster Sandeep Gadoli.
The matter came to light Wednesday after Gurugram police, acting on a missing persons’ complaint by Pahuja’s family, checked the CCTV footage of City Point Hotel and saw two men dragging what appeared to be a body wrapped in bedsheets. Pahuja had checked into the hotel in the early hours of Tuesday, along with hotel owner Abhijeet Singh.
While the police have registered an FIR under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a police source said they are yet to recover Pahuja’s body.
“The murder took place on the intervening night of 2-3 January. The woman was reported missing by her family on 1 January,” Gurugram Police spokesperson Subhash Boken told ThePrint.
The source quoted earlier added that Pahuja’s family in their complaint said they could not reach her for several hours after she went to meet “her friend” Abhijeet Singh. “We found out that her body, covered in sheets, had been dragged out of the hotel and put into a BMW car. Abhijeet Singh and his two associates have been arrested,” the source added.
Pahuja was a resident of Gurugram’s Baldev Nagar area, and accused Abhijeet Singh, a native of Hisar.
Though the exact motive of the murder is yet to be ascertained, Pahuja’s family has alleged the role of deceased gangster Sandeep Gadoli’s associates, while police sources suggest that a preliminary inquiry points to a “blackmail” angle.
“Divya and Abhijeet were in touch with each other for the last two to three months and then entered into a relationship. Investigation has revealed that Divya had taken some compromising photos of Abhijeet and started demanding money from him. Abhijeet has claimed that he gave her some money. We are verifying the details,” DCP (Crime) Vijay Partap Singh said.
A preliminary probe suggests that Abhijeet asked Pahuja to delete the ‘compromising photos’ and this led to an altercation during which he shot her dead.
Meanwhile, police Thursday found Abhijeet Singh’s BMW car at a bus stand in Patiala, which was used to transport Divya’s body. Two men who drove it there are currently absconding.
Pahuja was the rumoured partner of Sandeep Gadoli, once counted among Gurugram’s most dreaded gangsters. She, along with her mother and five Haryana Police personnel, were named as accused in Gadoli’s ‘staged encounter’ at a hotel in Mumbai in 2016.
Eighteen at the time, Pahuja was arrested that same year and was released on bail by the Bombay High Court last July.
Mumbai Police had alleged that Pahuja, along with Gadoli’s rival Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar, hatched a “conspiracy” to kill him with help from Haryana Police personnel. While Gujjar was behind bars at the time of Gadoli’s death, investigators alleged that he planned the murder with the help of his brother Manoj.
“Divya had introduced Abhijeet to Gujjar after she came out on bail last year. We are exploring all angles,” DCP Singh said.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: NIA arrests suspected Godara aide from Jhunjhunu in connection with Karni Sena chief murder