Slain Haryana gangster's 'girlfriend', her mother arrested

Mumbai: A woman, said to be the girlfriend of Haryana gangster Sandeep Gadoli, and her mother were arrested Thursday in connection with his killing in an alleged fake encounter here in February, taking the number of those behind bars in the case to five, a police officer said.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Mumbai Police, which is probing the encounter, detained Divya Pahuja and her mother Sonia in Gurgaon earlier in the day and questioned them as suspects in the case, he said.

They were later placed under arrest, the officer said without providing further details.

Gadoli was shot dead by a team of Haryana Police inside a hotel near the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in suburban Andheri on February 7.

Divya was allegedly the girlfriend of the deceased and was accompanying him when the encounter took place, police said.

The other accused arrested till now by the SIT are all policemen from Haryana, namely constables Vikram Singh, Jitendra Yadav and Sub Inspector Pradhyuman Yadav, who led the encounter team.

Vikram and Jitendra were nabbed from Mumbai, while Pradhyuman was apprehended from Gurgaon.

The team led by Pradhyuman claimed Gadoli, a history-sheeter, was shot in retaliation after he fired at them to avoid arrest. His relatives, however, alleged that it was a fake encounter and filed a police complaint after which the SIT was formed.