Divya Pahuja had tried to blackmail a Delhi fashion photographer in 2015: Rayya Labib

NEW DELHI: Mumbai-based actor Rayya Labib while reacting to the murder of ex-model Divya Pahuja has stated that the latter had tried to blackmail a Delhi-based fashion photographer in the year 2015. Rayya had earlier claimed that Pahuja loved to live life in the fast lane and she was arrogant, hot-headed and would snap at others at the drop of a hat.

According to Rayya in 2015, she was in Delhi for a few months where she was doing print modelling assignments.  That is where she met Divya who was coming to Delhi for work. “I learnt that Divya had done a photo shoot with a fashion photographer and later on tried to blackmail him. Her modus operandi was similar. She would get friendly with ‘rich’ males and then try to get money out of them. When they refused, she would blackmail them. In this case, she had travelled to Jaipur for a shoot with the concerned photographer and I think they got close. After the shoot was over the photographer tried to cut off and this is when the blackmailing started. He ended up paying a huge amount to get her off his back,” Rayya revealed.

Speaking about Divya’s behaviour, she said, “while we were struggling for work and shoots, she wanted to make it big at any cost and mint money even if it meant crossing the yellow line,” Rayya who had worked on some modelling assignments with Pahuja in Delhi about eight years ago, said.

Pahuja was a model before she was arrested for her involvement in the murder of a gangster, who was killed by the Haryana police in Mumbai in a fake encounter, at the behest of another rival gangster.

Pahuja was found dead in a Gurugram hotel on Tuesday (January 2). CCTV footage from the hotel’s surveillance system where the model was allegedly killed showed the suspects, including the hotel owner, dragging the body before stuffing it in the trunk of a BMW car.  While the car has been found and several arrests made, the body is yet to be located.

According to media reports, the former model was found dead, allegedly killed by a Gurugram hotel owner Abhijeet Singh. CCTV grabs captured disturbing scenes as the suspects dragged her body and dumped it in a BMW car before fleeing.

Divya was the girlfriend of slain gangster Sandeep Gadoli, who was killed in a controversial encounter in 2016 in a hotel in Mumbai. Divya was the prime accused in the case, along with her mother and some Haryana cops, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after spending nearly seven years in prison.

Divya’s parents and family have claimed it’s Gadoli’s men who committed the crime as revenge, but hotelier Abhijeet Singh who was arrested told the cops during investigation that Divya was extorting money from him and he killed her in a fit of rage, after a fight regarding some personal photos, which Divya was blackmailing him with and extorting money from him.

Rayya has claimed that Divya was a wild one and would do anything to make money. “The allegations of extortion against her by the hotel owner are quite possible and it’s not surprising that she got into trouble again within months of being released from Byculla jail in Mumbai after seven years,” Rayya told this website.