Ex-Model's Decomposed Body Found In Haryana Canal, How Cops Identified Her

The body of former model Divya Pahuja was found in a canal in Haryana in a decomposed state. The woman was shot dead on January 1 in a Gurugram hotel and her body was dumped in the Bhakra canal in Punjab, which drifted to neighbouring Haryana.

The police launched a massive operation to find the body after one of the accused said he had dumped the body in a canal in Punjab. Balraj Gill, an accomplice in the murder, was arrested from the Kolkata airport and told the police he had disposed of the body in Patiala, around 270 km from Gurugram, where the murder reportedly took place.

The body was found in a decomposed state by a team of Gurugram Police in Haryana's Tohna. The cops identified the body through a tattoo on the back. The Gurgaon police officer Mukesh Kumar said, "We could identify the body with tattoos. There were two tattoos on the body found in the canal." In one of the old pictures of Divya Pahuja, a tattoo of the same design is present at the same spot. The family of victim has been informed and the body will be sent for an autopsy and DNA testing, the police officer said.

Divya Pahuja was killed at a Gurgaon hotel on January 1, with CCTV footage showing killers dragging her body out of the hotel to a car.

The 27-year-old was taken to a hotel room by five men. She was shot in the head as she had allegedly been blackmailing the hotel owner with his obscene pictures, police said.

Sources said Pahuja allegedly had some obscene videos of the hotel owner Abhijeet Singh on her phone which he asked her to delete, but she refused. The former model was allegedly blackmailing with the photos and this led to Singh and at least two of his aides shooting her. Pahuja's family has vehemently denied this charge.

The Gurugram police have arrested another accused who supplied the gun which was allegedly aused to kill the former model. Pravesh, a gangster, arranged the gun for Abhijeet, the main accused. The police recovered illegal weapons from his possession.

Divya Pahuja was in jail for her alleged involvement in the fake encounter of her then-boyfriend and Gurugram gangster Sandeep Gadoli in 2016. She had been granted bail in June last year.