Divya Pahuja murder case: Ex-model’s body found in Haryana canal after suspect’s confession

The police have recovered the body of former model Divya Pahuja from a canal in the Indian state of Haryana’s Tohna over a week after she was allegedly murdered. The 27-year-old was murdered under suspicious circumstances at a hotel in the Indian city of Gurugram on January 2.

What do we know about the recent development?

Gurugram police on Saturday (Jan 13), said that they had found the body of the former model who was fatally shot from the Bhakra canal near Fatehabad in Haryana.

This comes a day after one of the suspects in her murder case confessed to the police that he had dumped her corpse in a canal in Punjab’s Patiala on January 3.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Vijay Pratap Singh said several teams of Gurugram police were deployed after the accused confessed. The body is said to have travelled around 150 kilometres and was later found in Haryana’s Fatehabad.

Following theconfession by Balraj Gill, one of the accused, the policelaunched a search operation on Friday (Jan 12), involving 42 divers. The body was found at 10:30 am (local time), said the city’s police.

Pahuja’s family was sent a photo of the body, which confirmed her identity with the help of two tattoos, the police further said.

The bodydid not decompose due to the cold weather in northern India and will be sent for postmortem at a hospital in Fatehabad, later today.

About the case

On Tuesday night (Jan 2), the police arrested three peopleidentified as Abhijeet Singh (56), Hemraj (28) and Omprakash (23) in connection with the murder ofDivya Pahuja.However, Balraj Gill, anotheraccused in the case, was arrested fromKolkata airport when he was reportedly trying to board a flight to New Delhi.

The 27-year-old Pahuja was one of the accused in an alleged fake encounter of gangster Sandeep Gadoli which took place in a Mumbai hotel on February 7, 2016. She was out on bail granted by the Bombay High Court after spending seven years in prison, in June.

During the interrogation, Singh claimed that Pahuja had been blackmailing him over his ‘obscene videos and photos,’ which led to his involvement in the alleged murder.

According to the police, Singh, a hotel owner in Gurugram and the main accused in the case,fatally shot Pahuja in the head.

(With inputs from agencies)