An 11-day search that crossed State boundaries and briefly touched the India-Nepal border ended on Tuesday when a joint team of Lucknow Police and the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested model and social media influencer Shraddha Dubey, her sister Rashmi Dubey and driver Tanveer Ali alias Danish from a rented 11th-floor flat in Nagpur’s Chinchbhuvan area in connection with the alleged murder of Shiva Sharma a café owner in Lucknow. Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) and STF chief Amitabh Yash confirmed the arrests.
The three, each carrying a Rs 50,000 reward, had been missing since October 9, when 28-year-old Sharma fell from the fourth floor of Awadh Green Apartments near Balu Adda in Lucknow’s Hazratganj. What police first treated as a possible accident quickly became a murder investigation after his mother, Ranjana Sharma, filed a complaint alleging he had been held, assaulted and pushed down the apartment.
Ranjana told investigators that her son was in a live-in relationship with Shraddha and that his body showed signs of prior violence, including marks she described as cigarette burns. He was found in his underwear.
The post-mortem recorded multiple external and internal injuries consistent with a fall from height, damage to both lungs, the liver and spleen, substantial internal bleeding and a pelvic fracture, with death attributed to shock and haemorrhage. It did not establish whether he jumped, fell or was pushed. Police are examining CCTV from the building, call records and the possibility of a crime-scene reconstruction.
Shraddha, a fashion model and social media influencer from Rae Bareli, has claimed in videos released while on the run that Sharma took his own life. She claimed he jumped because of debts of about Rs 15 to 20 lakh and financial stress. She also denied having any political or official connections.
Police found sex toys and sexual enhancement medication in the apartment. The CCTV footage showed the white Audi Secretariat arriving soon after the fall. Later, officers found the car, registered under Shraddha’s name, abandoned at the Rupaidiha border post.
Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), the Assistant Commissioner for Hazratganj, and the Station House Officer (SHO) were removed or transferred after the trio could not be found.
Police then issued non-bailable warrants and raised the reward.
Police teams followed the group as they travelled through Nepal, where CCTV cameras recorded them, and then back into Uttar Pradesh through Agra, Lucknow, and Kanpur. Shraddha briefly appeared before the media before absconding again.
Later, the group reached Nagpur in a hired car with UP plates, police claim. They got on an e-rickshaw at Ganeshpeth and went into a high-rise apartment. They wore burqas, kept changing vehicles and locations.
ADG Amitabh Yash said their methods were deliberate. “They used professional-style tactics, such as often changing locations, hiding their identities, travelling in burqas, and switching taxis, to keep a steady lead of 10 to 12 hours over our teams,” he said. “Their movements were planned to make detection as difficult as possible.”
Nagpur Crime Branch sleuths reviewed footage from about 200 cameras, checked internet records, and kept watch around the clock until the UP team arrived. The three are expected to be brought for transit remand before being taken to Lucknow.
The arrests end the search for the accused persons, but the main question remains: was Sharma’s death a murder, as his family claims, or a suicide, as the accused say? Now that the three are in custody, investigators will question them, review digital evidence, and try to find out exactly what happened on the evening of October 9.