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A 27-year-old woman who was an accused in the alleged fake encounter of dreaded gangster Sandeep Gadoli was shot dead at a hotel room near the Gurugram bus stand, police officers aware of the matter said on Wednesday, adding that they have arrested three people in connection with her murder.
Divya 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. Police said she was allegedly blackmailing Abhijeet Singh, 56, a hotel owner in the city, who purportedly killed her on Tuesday night at one of his properties.
Assistant commissioner of police Mukesh Kumar said they have arrested three suspects for Pahuja’s murder — Singh, and his employees Hemraj, 28, who goes by a single name, and Om Prakash, 23. “The suspects fled the hotel in a BMW car with the body to dispose of it. They were later arrested from the hotel,” he said.
The police are yet to find the body.
Giving details of the case, police said Gadoli, a dreaded gangster who was charged with a string of murders and had kept the police on their toes for over two decades, was shot dead at a hotel in Mumbai on February 6, 2016. However, the Mumbai Police alleged that jailed gangster Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar conspired with Haryana Police personnel to eliminate Gadoli, who was lured into a trap with the help of Pahuja, Gadoli’s then girlfriend.
Subsequently, Pahuja, her mother Sonia, and five police personnel were booked in connection with Gadoli’s death. According to the prosecution, Pahuja accompanied Gadoli to Mumbai and kept sharing their live location on her social media accounts to ensure that police followed them. “She was aware that Gadoli will be killed in the Mumbai hotel room,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
The trial in the case began in 2020, but in June 2023, the Bombay high court granted Pahuja bail after the bench was informed that she was custody for six years and 11 months, and the trial was not likely to conclude anytime soon.
Quoting the statement of Singh, the hotelier, police said that Pahuja was in possession of some of his (Singh’s) personal photographs, and 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.
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, and said that her sister was last present at Singh’s hotel.
“A police team reached the hotel late on Tuesday night and found blood stains on the stairs. The team scanned the hotel’s CCTV footage, 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,” said ACP Kumar, following which the three suspects were arrested.
“Crime branch teams are working to recover the body,” he added.
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