• Source:JND
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The Gurugram Police on Wednesday nabbed three persons in the murder case of a former model Divya Pahuja. 27-year-old Pahuja, who belonged to Punjab, was killed at a hotel in Gurugram. As per police, as many as five persons took Pahuja to the hotel, where she was shot dead by the premises’ owner Abhijeet Singh. As per a report in news agency PTI, she used to extort money from the hotel owner by blackmailing him with his ‘obscene pictures’. Pahuja’s family however refuted the claim.

Based on the CCTV footage ascertained from the crime spot, it was found that the accused dragged the victim's body from the hotel to the car. "The family of the girl named Divya (27) has alleged that Divya went with a person named Abhijeet who is the owner of a hotel...When police scanned the CCTV footage of the hotel, the crime was revealed," Mukesh Kumar, Superintendent of Police (SP) said on Wednesday.

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Besides prime accused Abhijeet Singh, two others– Hemraj and Omprakash– were arrested by Gurugram Crime Branch.

Divya Pahuja and her criminal record:

Divya Pahuja was accused of the murder of gangster Sandeep Gadoli. Gadoli was killed at a Mumbai hotel in February 2016. The killing was portrayed as an encounter as several policemen were also involved. Pahuja, her mother and five police officers were arrested in the 'fake encounter' case. The Mumbai Police had said that Gadoli was lured by the policemen into the hotel with the help of his girlfriend Pahuja. He was later allegedly killed in a fake encounter.

After serving seven years in jail, Pahuja was last year granted bail by the Mumbai High Court.   

Who was Sandeep Gadoli: 

Gadoli was a dreaded criminal involved in a plethora of murders for two decades. He was seriously injured after police opened fire at him. Gadoli carried a cash reward of ₹1.25 lakh and was wanted in connection with several murders, including the killing of municipal councillor Binder Gujjar’s driver in October 2015. He had over 36 cases registered against him. 

Claim by Divya Pahuja’s sister:

The model’s sister Naina Pahuja claimed in a police complaint that Sandeep Gadoli’s sister Sudesh Kataria and brother Brahm Prakash Kataria gave money to Abhijeet Singh to eliminate Divya. 

Abhijeet’s statement to police:

Abhijeet said he wanted to get his ‘obscene pictures’ deleted from Divya’s phone as she was blackmailing him to extort money at times. Divya did not tell her phone password to Abhijeet, owing to which he murdered her with the help of his two aides Hemraj and Om Prakash. "Accused Abhijeet said that on January 2 he had come to Hotel City Point with Divya Pahuja and he wanted to delete his obscene photos from her phone, but Divya Pahuja did not tell the password of her phone. 

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“Due to this, Abhijeet shot dead Divya Pahuja with the help of Hemraj and Om Prakash. They kept the dead body in the accused Abhijeet's BMW car. After this, the accused Abhijeet called his two other associates and gave them his car to dispose of the dead body. Our teams are conducting raids to nab the accused and recover the body,” news agency PTI quoted Police spokesperson Subhash Boken as saying.