Divya Pahuja, a 27-year-old model who recently got bail in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Gurugram's most-wanted gangster Sandeep Gadoli, was shot dead at a hotel in the Haryana city. Three people, including the hotel's owner, were arrested on Thursday.
On Tuesday night, five people allegedly took Divya Pahuja to the Gurugram hotel and shot her in the head. The matter came to light on Wednesday after the girl's family couldn't contact Divya, and approached police suspecting foul play.
Divya's sister Naina told the police that she was last present at the hotel owned by 56-year-old Abhijeet Singh.
A team of police then reached the hotel and found blood stains on the stairs. While scanning the CCTV footage, cops saw Divya's body wrapped in a bedsheet and being dragged by two men towards the BMW car that was stationed at the hotel's entry.
"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 news agency.
According to police, the hotel's owner, Abhijeet Singh, wanted to eliminate Divya as she had some of his photographs in a compromising position and was seeking money. Singh told the police she started blackmailing him soon after she got out of jail.
"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.
Police have launched a manhunt to recover Divya's body.
Divya, a resident of Baldev Nagar in Gurugram’s Sector-7, was jailed in 2016 after being involved in the murder of her ex-boyfriend Gadoli.
Gadoli was killed by the police in an encounter in a Mumbai hotel in 2016. Divya, her mother, and five police officers were later arrested for the murder.
According to the Mumbai police, Divya was used as a honeytrap to bait Gadoli into coming to a hotel, where he was eliminated.
In June last year, she was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after spending seven years in prison.