UP Influencer Accused Of Killing Boyfriend Linked To Mumbai's 'Z' Gang

Shraddha Dubey, an influencer and make-up artist arrested in the alleged murder of her businessman boyfriend, Shiva Sharma, may have links to Mumbai's 'Z' gang, the police investigation has revealed.

Dubey, along with her sister, Rashmi Dubey, and their driver, Danish, was arrested from Nagpur on Tuesday after changing their location multiple times. Shiva, who owned a chain of restaurants, had fallen to his death from his girlfriend's fourth-floor flat in Lucknow on October 9. The businessman's family accused Dubey of killing him.

According to the police, the accused and her sister, along with their driver, had escaped to Nepal from Lucknow. From there, she returned to Lucknow and then travelled to Agra via Rae Bareli, Jhansi and finally to Nagpur. They were planning to escape again before they were arrested by the Special Task Force.

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Police sources have claimed that Mumbai's 'Z' gang had promised to provide shelter to Dubey in Nagpur and had invited her to stay at a farmhouse. Police, however, tracked her location before she could move into the farmhouse.

The 'Z' gang, also known as the Zulfikar Behlim gang, allegedly operates on the lines of the infamous D-gang of Dawood Ibrahim and operates an organised crime and extortion syndicate in the western suburbs of Mumbai.

In July, 12 individuals were arrested in connection with an extortion case involving a builder from whom Rs 25 lakh was demanded. In August, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was invoked in the said case.

The gang is also accused of supplying drugs for rave and Page 3 parties. According to sources, the investigators claim to possess significant evidence regarding the activities of the gang, which is also said to have links to drug smuggling.

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According to sources, Dubey and the gang were in contact via FaceTime.

Police have recovered three iPhones from Dubey and further investigation into the matter is underway.

Dubey has refuted the murder allegations, calling them "baseless". She instead claimed that Sharma died by suicide and alleged that he was under debt of Rs 20 lakh and had spoken about ending his life if he couldn't repay the money.

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"I have known this individual (Shiva Sharma) for only four months; for about two to two-and-a-half of those months, we were friends. He never visited my home. He only started coming over in the last two months-and surely, things couldn't have deteriorated so drastically in such a short time that we would harbour such intentions toward one another. His mother has made false accusations because she never liked me," she said in one of the videos released days before her arrest.