Court convicts Chintan Upadhyay for murder of Hema, lawyer Harish Bhambhani

Dindoshi judge SY Bhosale will hear arguments on the quantum of sentence for the four convicts on Saturday

MUMBAI: A Dindoshi judge on Thursday convicted artist Chintan Upadhyay for the murder of his estranged wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani who were killed in December 2015.

Hema Upadhyay, Mumbai based artist, photographed at her studio on September 3, 2014. (ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINT)

Additional sessions judge SY Bhosale convicted Vijay Kumar Rajbhar also convicted Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradeep Kumar Rajbhar and Vijay Kumar Rajbhar for killing the two at Chintan Upadhyay’s behest.

The court has scheduled a hearing on the quantum of sentence for the convicts on Saturday.

The two victims were smothered to death on December 11, 2015, their bodies packed in cardboard boxes and dumped in a nullah in Kandivali. A garbage collector discovered their bodies the following day and alerted the police.

According to the prosecution, the murders were executed by Chintan’s art fabricator Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who used his employees and contacts to get the two killed. Vidyadhar, however, disappeared and was never arrested.

Chintan had contested the prosecution charge, insisting that he did not have any reason to eliminate Hema as his divorce plea had been granted and that he had already paid a major chunk of the maintenance ordered by the court.

The prosecution used CCTV footage that showed Hema and her lawyer entering Rajbhar’s fabrication unit where they were allegedly killed, and the tempo that was used to dispose of the two bodies.

Investigators also cited records of calls between Chintan and the other accused to demonstrate a chain between them, the prosecution submitted call details records. Special public prosecutor Vaibhav Baghade contended that Chintan came up with the conspiracy to eliminate Hema because he was frustrated with the matrimonial litigation. Besides, the prosecution cited Pradeep’s confessional statement that Chintan allegedly promised to pay them ₹20 lakh to execute the murders.

The prosecution relied heavily on Pradeep’s statement in which he gave a detailed account of how Pradeep made a call pretending to be his servant from Jaipur to lure Hema to meet them at the workshop, telling her that they would share evidence against Chintan which could be used in the divorce proceedings for ₹2 lakh. Later, Pradeep claimed, Chintan also transferred ₹2 lakhs to Hema as part payment of the maintenance amount.

The defence had, however, claimed that the confession was not voluntary and not admissible in evidence.

The prosecution also cited the testimony of advocate Harish Bhambani’s wife Poonam Bhambhani and daughter Anita Bhambhani, and Vidhyadhar’s mother Savitri to demonstrate that Poonam and her daughter knew that Harish had gone with Hema to collect evidence against Chintan and Hema had suspected Chintan’s conduct. Besides, Savitri claimed that Vidhyadhar called her a day after the murder and told her that he killed Hema on Chintan’s instructions.