‘Blackmail, body moved in BMW’: What we know about model Divya Pahuja’s murder in Gurugram

Divya Pahuja, a 27-year-old woman who was accused in the alleged fake encounter of dreaded gangster Sandeep Gadoli, was shot dead at a hotel room near the Gurugram bus stand on Wednesday.

Pahuja, a resident of Baldev Nagar in Gurugram’s Sector-7, was out on bail after spending nearly seven years in custody in connection with Gadoli’s death. The gangster was murdered in a Mumbai hotel on February 7, 2016. Pahuja, her mother and five police officers had been arrested for the murder of the gangster.

The Mumbai Police said that Gadoli was lured by the policemen into the hotel with the help of his girlfriend Pahuja. The police also said that Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar ran a rival gang and allegedly conspired with Haryana Police officials to eliminate Gadoli.

Here’s what we know about the Divya Pahuja murder case:

• Pahuja’s death came to light after her family was not able to contact her, following which her sister, Naina, approached the police suspecting foul play. She told the police that her sister was last present at a hotel owned by 56-year-old Abhijeet Singh in the city.
• A police team then reached the hotel late on Tuesday night and found blood stains on the stairs. The team scanned the hotel’s CCTV and found footage of two men dragging a body wrapped in a bed sheet towards the main entrance of the hotel, and then loading it into a blue BMW car.
• “When the police scanned the CCTV footage of the hotel, the crime was revealed. The matter has been documented, and an investigation is underway. The crime team is also looking into the matter,” Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar told PTI.
• According to the police, Pahuja was allegedly blackmailing Singh. He told the police that Pahuja was in possession of some of his personal photographs and that she began blackmailing him soon after her release.
• “Singh revealed that on Tuesday night, he met her at a room in his hotel and tried deleting the photographs from her phone, but could not unlock the phone as it was password protected. This led to a heated argument, and Singh shot her dead,” said ACP Kumar.
• The Gurugram Police have arrested Singh and two of his employees – Hemraj and Om Prakash – in connection with the case. The police are yet to find the body.