Mumbai: Mole who trapped gangster in fake encounter killed

An undated photo of Divya Pahuja; Abhijeet Singh, the deceased’s boyfriend and accused; A still of CCTV footage in which the body can be seen being dragged by the alleged killers

Former model Divya Pahuja, 27, who was arrested along with her mother Soniya in 2016 by the Mumbai police in connection with the encounter of gangster Sandeep Gadoli, was allegedly killed in a hotel room in Gurugram on January 2. The walls of the room were blood-stained, but the body was nowhere to be found. After scanning CCTV footage, the cops saw two men dragging Pahuja's remains, wrapped in a piece of cloth, in a hotel corridor before keeping it in a BMW, which headed towards Punjab.

After remaining imprisoned for seven years in the Gadoli encounter case, Pahuja was released on bail last year in June and since then she had been staying at Baldev Nagar in Gurugram.

Hotel City Point in Gurugram where the murder occurred on Tuesday

According to the police, she was killed by the man she had reportedly been dating, Abhijeet Singh, the owner of the hotel, City Point, in which she was killed.
The police alleged that Singh, a resident of South Extension in New Delhi, spent Rs 10 lakh to dispose of her body with the help of two men seen in the CCTV footage. The Haryana police have registered an FIR and detained Singh.

A forensics team is examining the blood stains and the DNA will be matched with that of Pahuja's relatives. The cops are yet to disclose what murder weapon Pahuja's killers used to eliminate her. The investigators are yet to get custody of her body, which was seen being dragged by Singh's accomplices inside the corridor of the hotel before it was stuffed in a BMW, which is believed to be headed towards Punjab.

Gangster Sandeep Gadoli, who was gunned down by the Haryana police in Mumbai in 2016; (right) Mukesh Kumar, ACP

CopSpeak

The Station House Officer (SHO) of Sector 14 police station inspector Krishna Kant told mid-day, "Yes, this is true. We have registered an FIR under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. Our investigations are underway."

Assistant Commissioner of Police Mukesh Kumar told mid-day that the crime branch has been investigating the case. "The investigation is at a nascent stage and it is not advisable to share any details at this point, but the killer has tried to destroy the evidence, and our efforts are underway to gather all pieces of it," Kumar said.

Sources in the police department told mid-day that Pahuja had come to the Hotel City Point on January 2 around 4 am.

"We have been told that on Monday, Pahuja was out with Singh. She reached Hotel City Point around 4 am on Tuesday with Singh and another person," said the source in the Gurugram Police. The investigators are yet to ascertain the motives of the alleged killer. A source said, "It is premature to comment on anything at present."

How matter came to light

After Pahuja was killed, her family members tried to contact her on January 2, but her cellphone was switched off.

"Her family members knew that she was out with Abhijeet and they reached Hotel City Point," said a source.

Her relatives told the police that the cellphone was switched off at 7.30 am on January 2 and since then she had been incommunicado. When Pahuja's relatives reached Hotel City Point and demanded that they see the establishment's CCTV footage, the owner did not cooperate with the family.

Smelling a rat, the family approached the Sector 14 police station and narrated the incident. Subsequently, a police team visited the hotel.

Sources told mid-day that the deceased was in room no. 111. When the cops examined CCTV footage of the hotel, the two men were seen dragging a body wrapped in clothes at 10:44:27.

"We scanned the belongings kept in the hotel room whose walls were blood-stained. These include pieces of jewellery and clothes that her relatives identified as Pahuja's. Hence, the hotel owner has been detained and he is being questioned," said an officer at Sector 14 police station, Gurugram.

Arrest in 2016

Pahuja and her mother were arrested in 2016 from Delhi after Gadoli was killed in a fake encounter. Pahuja was the sole eyewitness in the case and she was present in the hotel room in Andheri West on February 7 where the Haryana-based gangster was ‘encountered' by eight cops from the Gurgaon police, including two inspectors. The Gurgaon police claimed that Gadoli had backfired, but an investigation by the local police and the crime branch revealed that Gadoli was killed in cold blood. The Mumbai police commissioner had even appointed a separate SIT to investigate the case.

The death of Gadoli

After evading the cops for years, Gurgaon gangster Gadoli was finally done in by a honeytrap. Pahuja allegedly convinced him to get rid of his weapon, leaving him defenceless against the Haryana cops who shot him down. Gadoli's sister Sudesh Kataria had said that her brother used to keep a small firearm with him for safety.
Reportedly, after making Gadoli throw away his firearm, Pahuja informed her mother, who then relayed this information to the Haryana police team.

She had come into contact with Gadoli through his friend, Manish Khurana, who ran the hotel where she worked. Reportedly, the police had instructed Divya as well as Manish to ensure that Gadoli was without his weapon at the time of his ‘encounter' in Mumbai.