Divya Pahuja murder: Ex-model was shot at point-blank range. What post-mortem revealed
Former model Divya Pahuja was shot in the head at point-blank range, the post-mortem revealed which was conducted at Agroha Medical College in Haryana’s Hisar.
Eleven days after she was shot dead in a Gurugram hotel, the body of 27-year-old Divya Pahuja was recovered from a canal in Haryana’s Fatehabad district on January 13. The body was found based on information provided by accused Balraj Gill, who along with another person, had disposed of the body. He was arrested from an airport in Kolkata on Thursday last week.
On January 2, Divya Pahuja was taken to Hotel City Point by five people and shot in the head inside room number 111 because she had allegedly been extorting money from the hotel owner, 56-year-old Abhijeet Singh, by blackmailing him with his “obscene pictures”, the Gurugram Police had said earlier.
The Tribune reported that a bullet was removed from Divya Pahuja’s head during the autopsy, while the viscera has been preserved for further investigation.
India Today reported that the post-mortem was conducted by four doctors, including two women doctors, under the direction of Dr Mohan Singh. After the post-mortem was conducted, the body was handed over to Pahuja’s family. The body was taken to Gurugram, where her last rites will be conducted, the report added.
The report added that the Gurugram Police SIT investigating the murder case has sent two pistols recovered from the house of the main accused and hotel owner Abhijeet Singh and a pistol belonging to his arrested PSO Parvesh for forensic examination. The cops suspect one of the three weapons could have been used in the murder of Divya Pahuja. The weapons were recovered by the SIT following the questioning of PSO Pravesh, who is a resident of Rohtak, the report added.
Gurugram assistant commissioner of police (Crime) Varun Kumar Dahiya said Divya Pahuja’s body was recovered from the subsidiary canal of the Bhakra canal in Fatehabad’s Tohana.
What CCTV camera captured
CCTV camera footage from Hotel City Point showed the accused, including Abhijeet Singh, purportedly dragging Divya Pahuja’s body wrapped in a white sheet through the lobby. They later fled the hotel in a car with the body in the boot.
According to police, Abhijeet Singh handed over the vehicle with the body to Balraj Gill around a kilometre from the hotel. The car was later found abandoned at a bus stand in Punjab’s Patiala.
Police launched an extensive operation to find Divya Pahuja’s body after disclosures made by Balraj Gill following his arrest, the police said. He disposed of the body with another accused, Ravi Banga at the behest of Abhijeet Singh, the cops added.
Arrests so far
The police had earlier arrested four people — Abhijeet Singh, Hemraj, Omprakash and Megha — in connection with the case.
Who was Divya Pahuja?
Divya Pahuja was in jail for more than seven years for conspiring a “fake encounter” of her partner gangster Sandeep Gandoli in Mumbai with the Gurugram Police and rival gang leader Virendra Kumar alias Binder Gujjar on February 6, 2016.
At the time of Sandeep Gandoli’s killing, Binder Gujjar was in prison but had hatched the conspiracy with the help of his brother Manoj and roped in Divya.
The Mumbai Police registered an FIR against five police personnel, Divya, her mother and others. The Bombay high court granted bail to Divya in June 2023.