An Uttar Pradesh police team left for Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon after a Nagpur court granted transit remand for model and social media influencer Shraddha Dubey, 31, her sister Rashmi Dubey and their driver Tanveer Ali alias Danish. The three were arrested in Nagpur on Tuesday in connection with the murder of cafe owner Shiva Sharma, 28, who died after falling from an apartment building in Lucknow on October 9.
A Nagpur crime branch team led by senior police inspector Shubhangi Deshmukh and UP special task force (STF) officers produced the three before Chief Judicial Magistrate Sameer Sattaram Kamat at about 2:30pm. The judge granted transit remand to the UP team till October 24.
The STF team left for Lucknow, 900 km away, by road after the court order.
Shraddha Dubey, her sister and their driver, who were on the run, had travelled to Kanpur, Agra and Nepal before landing in Maharashtra. They arrived in Nagpur on Monday and rented a flat on the 11th floor of an apartment in the Beltarodi area of south-west Nagpur.
The three were tracked down by the Nagpur crime branch on a tip from the UP police using CCTV footage, local intelligence, and a crucial tip from an e-rickshaw driver who gave the burqa-clad suspects a ride,
Sharma, who is alleged to be Shraddha’s live-in partner, died after falling from the fourth floor. The incident was initially treated as an accidental death, but his mother later lodged a murder complaint alleging that her son had been subjected to physical and mental torture. She told police that Sharma called her shortly before his death and said he would return in five minutes after Shraddha called him outside.
A murder case was registered on October 10.
The case gained further attention after videos of Shraddha surfaced on social media. In a video interview to a news agency, she denied any role in Sharma’s death and claimed he died by suicide due to financial difficulties. She alleged that Sharma owed between ₹15 lakh and ₹20 lakh and had threatened to end his life if he could not repay the money.