Sandeep Gadoli encounter: The Divya Pahuja story

With Divya Pahuja finally admitting that she was working with the Gurgaon cops in their plot to kill Sandeep Gadoli, we look at her alleged role and theories surrounding her in the fake encounter.

Divya, who was arrested along with her mother Soniya by the Mumbai Crime Branch last month, is believed to have made a confession that will nail the accused Gurgaon cops. One major confession is that Gadoli was unarmed when the cops barged into his hotel room and shot him - directly contradicting the cops' claims that Gadoli was the one to open fire on them, forcing them to fire back in retaliation. She also explained how she passed on information to her mother, who in turn alerted the accused cops on the whereabouts of Gadoli. (Read Story)

Divya was allegedly used as a honeytrap to keep track of Gadoli and ensure he came to Mumbai unarmed. She came into contact with Gadoli through his friend, Manish Khurana, who also runs the hotel where she used to work.

Sources close to investigation said that the accused cops had instructed Divya, as well as Manish, to ensure that Gadoli was without his weapon at the time of his ‘encounter' in Mumbai. Through her mother, Divya informed the Gurgaon cops that the target was unarmed, said sources. The mother-daughter duo was to get Rs 2 crore for this job; claims the Gadoli family's advocate, Tanveer Nizam. (Read More)

In an exclusive interview earlier, Divya proclaimed her innocence. "I seriously did not do anything. I belong to a middle-class family and am a simple girl. My only mistake was being in the same room when the shootout happened. The day they prove that I was involved, I will surrender to the police. Ask them to prove it first," she told the paper.

Divya revealed that she was Gadoli's girlfriend for a very short time - just a month or so. She claimed that during all that time, she never knew that he was a gangster, despite the fact that he would often put a gun to her head to force her to do simple things, like finish a meal, "He was very caring, but behaved awkwardly at times. If I did not eat food, he put his gun to my head and forced me to eat," she said, adding, "He always carried a gun with him and whenever I asked him why, he told me he was not a good person. But I never knew he was a gangster. (Read More)

While she finally has been arrested, the circumstances surrounding the same are also being questioned. Divya was arrested from her home in Gurgaon on Thursday. The fact that she and her mother were arrested there while they were calmly enjoying pulao made by Divya, begs the question of whether she planned the whole thing. (Read More)