Lucknow police broke their silence on October 20, arresting model Shraddha Dubey, her sister Rashmi, and their driver, Danish, in Nagpur. The trio had been on the run since Shiva Sharma, 28, died after falling from the Awadh Green Apartment balcony on October 9. Authorities traced their flight path from Lucknow to Nepal, then Delhi, before they were finally cornered in Maharashtra. The case, initially logged as an accidental death, transformed into a murder investigation after Sharma’s family alleged he was assaulted and tortured before being thrown off the building. Police had put out a Rs 50,000 reward for information leading to their capture, a sum that proved unnecessary once surveillance networks locked onto their movements in Nagpur.
Freshly surfaced CCTV footage from August 4 adds a layer of complexity to the narrative. The clip shows 31-year-old Shraddha in a black dress, holding Shiva’s hand, walking down the apartment stairs with Rashmi in a pink satin set. The timestamp reads 1:30 am, suggesting the trio was heading out to a party. This visual evidence contradicts Shraddha’s public claims, where she denied involvement and asserted that Shiva jumped voluntarily after a dispute over a debt of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. She has repeatedly stated that CCTV footage would exonerate her, a defense that now faces scrutiny as the police analyze the full timeline of the incident.
The legal battle is heating up. While Shraddha maintains that Shiva was under financial stress and threatened suicide, the police have registered a murder case against the three accused. An audio recording circulating on social media complicates matters further, reportedly capturing Shiva admitting to selling Shraddha’s jewellery, valued at around Rs 6 lakh. This financial entanglement suggests a motive rooted in debt and property disputes rather than a simple domestic accident. As the trio sits in judicial custody, investigators are now digging into the communications and financial transactions between the parties in the weeks leading up to October 9.
The next phase of the investigation hinges on the forensic analysis of the apartment and the digital evidence recovered from the suspects' devices. Police are expected to file a charge sheet within the mandated timeframe, transforming this high-profile case into a courtroom showdown. For now, the focus remains on the interrogation of the three accused, who have yet to provide a unified account of the night Shiva Sharma died.