Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) member Pooja Shakun Pandey was arrested on Friday evening, nearly two weeks after Abhishek Gupta, a businessman from Uttar Pradesh’ Aligarh, was shot dead while boarding a bus.

Pooja is the prime accused in the murder of Gupta (25), a two-wheeler showroom owner, who was shot by two assailants allegedly hired by Pooja and her husband Ashok, an ABHM spokesperson.

Pooja, who carries the religious title of ‘Mahamandleshwar’, had been absconding since the murder, and had a Rs 50,000 reward on her head. She was nabbed in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur.

Gupta was allegedly shot by Mohammad Fazal and Mohammad Asif—who had been hired for Rs 3 lakhs—in Aligarh’s Roravar area, as he was boarding a public bus to Hathras.

“Abhishek’s family claimed she had been sexually harassing him over a period of time and allegedly planned to kill him after he broke all ties with her,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, SSP (Aligarh), as per an Indian Express report.

Tensions between Pooja and Abhishek Gupta reportedly arose after she demanded a share in his showroom, which he refused. He had also blocked her phone number.

However, the ABHM member is not new to controversy. She and her husband Ashok were arrested in 2019 after facing heavy backlash for ‘shooting’ an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi with an air pistol on his death anniversary.

Videos that had gone viral at the time showed her firing three shots at the effigy, after which it was burnt. Netizens took it as an attempt to recreate the assassination.

She had also invited ire at the time for publicly praising Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse.