NEW DELHI, Jan 3
Gurugram police arrested three persons, including owner of a city hotel, this morning after a 27-year-old woman was killed under mysterious circumstances in the hotel last night.
The victim has been identified as Divya Pahuja, a former model and one of the accused in the murder of gangster Sandeep Gadoli in 2016.
CCTV footage accessed by the police showed Abhijeet, the owner of the hotel, and two others dragging Divya’s body wrapped in a sheet out of the hotel and keeping it in the boot of a blue BMW car. The trio later escaped the crime scene in the same car. A media report claimed that Divya, who was allegedly taken to the hotel by five persons on Tuesday night, was shot in the head. Police suspect that Abhijeet paid Rs 10 lakh to his accomplices—identified from the CCTV footage as Prakash and Indraj—to dispose of Divya’s body. Both Prakash and Indraj used to work at the hotel.
An FIR was filed against the three based on a complaint filed by Divya’s family. “We have arrested three accused involved in the murder of Pahuja. Further probe is underway,” said Bhupender Singh Sangwan, DCP, West. Who was Divya Pahuja? Divya was a former model and an accused in the murder of gangster Sandeep Gadoli in a controversial encounter at a Mumbai hotel on February 7, 2016.
Mumbai Police arrested Divya—who reportedly was also the girlfriend of Gadoli—along with her mother and five policemen in connection with the incident. According to Mumbai Police officials, Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar, who had run a rival gang, allegedly conspired with Haryana Police officials to eliminate Gadoli. Gujjar was in prison at the time of the encounter, but he hatched a conspiracy and roped in Divya as a honey-trap to kill Gadoli, they had said.
The Bombay High Court granted bail to Divya in June 2023, about seven years after she was arrested.
