Punjab model Divya Pahuja's body found from Bhakra canal in Haryana 10 days after CCTV footage showed it being dragged into blue BMW car

Chandigarh, January 13

Body of Punjab ex-model Divya Pahuja, who was shot dead in a hotel, was on Saturday recovered from a canal in Haryana’s Fatehabad, said a Gurugram police official.

The body has been recovered from a subsidiary canal of the Bhakra in Tohana, said Gurugram Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Varun Kumar Dahiya.

The Gurugram police said Pahuja’s body was dumped in the Bhakra canal near Patiala in Punjab on January 3, a day after she was murdered. Police based their information on disclosures made by Balraj Gill, one of the men who allegedly disposed of her body.

Pahuja, 27, was shot dead in a hotel room in Gurugram on January 2. She was killed because she had allegedly been extorting money from the hotel owner by blackmailing him with his “obscene pictures”.

The 27-year-old Gurugram-based model had recently secured bail after seven years in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Gurugram’s most-wanted gangster, Sandeep Gadoli.

Pahuja was allegedly killed by Abhijeet Singh, the owner of the hotel City Point, where she was staying, and his associates Hemraj and Om Prakash.

Both Hemraj and Om Prakash used to work in Abhijeet’s hotel.

The police had accessed the CCTV footage where the accused can be seen escaping the crime spot in a blue BMW car, carrying Divya’s body in the boot.

Besides, another CCTV footage showed Abhijeet, the woman, and another person arriving at the hotel reception on January 2 and proceeding towards Room No 111.