Divya Pahuja's Family Cries Foul, Says Slain Gangster's Kin Paid to Kill Her | What We Know So Far

Former model Divya Pahuja, who was allegedly shot dead at a Gurugram hotel on Wednesday (January 3), was out on bail after being in jail for seven years as an accused in a gangster’s fake encounter case in Mumbai.

According to police, five people took the 27-year-old model to a hotel room late on January 2 and shot her in the head because she was extorting money from the hotel owner by blackmailing him with his “obscene pictures”. This claim, however, has been denied by her family who suspect her murder is connected to the fake encounter case from 2016.

Here’s all you need to know:

• In her formal complaint to the police, Divya Pahuja’s sister Naina Pahuja has alleged that slain gangster Sandeep Gadoli’s sister Sudesh Kataria and his brother Brahm Prakash gave money to the main accused, Abhijeet Singh, for the murder. “Divya was the main witness in Sandeep Gadoli murder case and we have full surety that Sandeep Gadoli’s sister Sudesh Kataria and his brother Brahm Prakash gave money to Abhijeet for the murder of Divya,” she stated in the FIR.
• Three accused have been arrested so far, including hotel owner Abhijeet Singh, a native of Model Town in Hisar, and his two employees – Hemraj (28), a resident of Nepal, and Omprakash (23), a resident of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal.
• Singh told the police during his initial interrogation that he shot Divya dead because she extorted money from him after blackmailing him with his “obscene pictures”. He said she wanted a huge sum this time. The hotel belongs to him but he has given it on lease.
• A police spokesperson said Singh came to the hotel with Divya on January 2 and told her that he wanted to delete his obscene photos from her phone but she did not tell him the password. “Due to which Abhijeet shot dead Divya Pahuja and along with Hemraj and Om Prakash, who worked as cleaning and reception workers in the hotel. They kept the dead body in the accused Abhijeet’s BMW car,” the spokesperson said.
• Footage from CCTV cameras installed at Hotel City Point shows the accused purportedly dragging the body wrapped in a white sheet through the lobby of Hotel City Point. Singh then called two other associates and gave them his car to dispose of the dead body. The police are conducting raids to nab the remaining accused and recover the body.
• But, the account of Divya’s sister Naina differs from this. She has said her sister last went to meet Singh on January 1 and the family even spoke to her on January 2 around 11.50 am. After that, her family tried but failed to reach her phone. Naina said this concerned her and they went to Singh’s house at South Extension in New Delhi, where they found his friend “Balraj” (who has been identified in the police version as Hemraj) with Divya’s phone.
• Naina said she took Divya’s phone and reached Singh in his hotel, where her sister was last present. “When I requested him to show the CCTV footage, he kept denying and arguing with me. In the end, I called the police and they started an investigation,” she stated in the FIR, adding that she found her sister’s blazer in the hotel and, when she was returning, he handed over Divya’s debit and pan cards saying she left them with him.
• Naina further said she found bloodstains on the floor of a hotel room and her sister’s ring, shoes and other articles in a store room. In the FIR, she also mentioned a woman, “who had boy’s cut hair and was wearing a black and white sweater”, as being involved in her sister’s murder.
• The police said Singh’s housekeepers Hemraj and Prakash helped him dispose of the body, adding that the accused also offered people Rs 10 lakh to get rid of the body. His partner Anup also helped him dump the body, the police added.

What is the Sandeep Gadoli fake encounter case?

Gangster Sandeep Gadoli was killed in a shootout in Mumbai on February 6, 2016. Later, the Mumbai Police said he had been lured into a trap with Divya Pahuja’s help, who posed as his girlfriend, and killed in a fake encounter.

Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar, who ran a rival gang, had allegedly conspired with officials of Haryana police to eliminate Gadoli. Gujjar was in prison at the time of the encounter, but he planned the whole thing with the help of his brother Manoj and roped in Divya as a honey trap.

An FIR was registered against five police personnel, Divya, her mother and others. The Bombay High Court had granted bail to Divya in June last year, about seven years after she was arrested.

(With PTI inputs)