Hema Upadhyay Murder Accused to Kin: “I’m Safe. I’ll Return Soon”

The search for Vidyadhar, alleged murderer of Hema Upadhyay continues as the case against her husband weakens.

Artist Hema Upadhyay was found dead in a drain in Mumbai’s Kandivali. (Photo: Twitter)

The search for Vidyadhar Rajbhar, the man who allegedly took the contract of murdering installation artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani, has become a game of wait, watch and wonder for the Mumbai police.

Two and a half months have passed since the double murder came to light and yet, Vidyadhar still remains elusive. With the deadline for filing the chargesheet for the case barely a fortnight away, this missing link grows lethal each day. Without Vidyadhar, every piece of gathered evidence against Hema’s estranged husband, arrested artist Chintan Upadhyay, stands circumstantial, even weak.

Vidyadhar Absconding, Police Foxed

• The Mumbai police had formed twenty teams of five officers each.
  
• The police are looking for Vidyadhar, a fabrication workshop owner.
  
• The teams scoured various places where he had relatives or clients.
  
• Police teams travelled cities including Bhopal, Delhi, Bangalore, Varanasi.
  
• Tens of people, who he was likely to contact, were also put under surveillance.
  
• His family is being constantly watched, but he has not approached anyone.
  

It is incredible. He is a novice criminal, and yet, he has managed to evade arrest for so long. We’ve dealt with men from the underworld, drug lords, but even they have always committed some mistake, left some trail that has led to their arrest. But this man has committed no mistake. During these two and a half months, he has kept his phone off, so we cannot trace his call data records. And he has contacted his family only once – a month ago, from a PCO on the Chennai-Coimbatore highway.

A senior crime branch officer of the Mumbai police

Novice Criminal Acting Like a Professional One

The officer said that Vidyadhar had avoided calling his wife, probably to save her from police trouble, and had called a relative from the PCO. ‘I am safe. I will return soon,’ he had told the relative. But by the time the Mumbai police informed their counterparts in Chennai who in turn zeroed in on the PCO, Vidyadhar had again set sail. He had deliberately called from a PCO to avoid detection through a cell tower, said sources in the Mumbai police. Officers said that Vidyadhar has several clients in Chennai and across south India and that they are being traced. But now, even a month after the call, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Hema Upadhyay’s cousin says the family is sure her ex-husband Chintan is behind the murder. (Photo: Hema’s photo by Anne Maniglier, altered by The Quint)

Psychology Of a Fugitive

Investigators say that there are only two things on a fugitive’s mind when he is on the run – money for sustaining his freedom and longing for his family. And it is in the search for these two things that he tends to commit mistakes. Mistakes that might up his game, give him away. But Vidyadhar, somehow, has been ahead of the anomalies.

We had expected to arrest him sooner. He had only a few thousand rupees on his person when he went absconding. He should have run out of the money, especially now that we know that he travelled from Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh (where he was present a day after the crime) to Bhusawal in Maharashtra (a day later) to Chennai (a month ago).

An officer from the Mumbai police

Police say Vidyadhar should have contacted a friend or a relative for funds, but he didn’t. He did not visit his hometown in Varanasi either. Police suspect that he must have taken up a job. He is a skilled man; he could easily find work.

Also, police were expecting him to contact his wife, especially because she had given birth to a baby girl only two months before the crime. But he hasn’t called her either. With speculations of his death and suicide, his family has begun to worry about him.

Wanted poster for fugitive Rajbhar, a suspect in the Hema Upadhyay double murder case. (Photo Courtesy: Puja Changoiwala)

Lookout Notices Pasted

Friends and relatives of slain artist Hema Upadhyay have announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for anyone who provides information on Vidyadhar’s whereabouts.

Sanchu Menon, Hema’s friend, who started the initiative, has had posters affixed in various cities, including Jaipur, Coimbatore, Varanasi and Mumbai. Menon, a 36-year-old businessman based in Navi Mumbai, said that he suspects that Chintan’s friends and well-wishers are providing financial help and sustaining his flight.

May be they are helping him. How else will he survive? It’s extremely confusing. It has been close to three months, and he still can’t be traced. Today (Monday), a couple of my friends are travelling to Madhya Pradesh to look for him. They will cover Indore, Jabalpur, and the Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh border. There are several industries that produce idols and sculptures there, and Vidyadhar had worked with many of them.

Sanchu Menon, friend of Hema Upadhyay

Artist Hema’s Mysterious Murder

Bodies of Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambani were found stuffed in wooden boxes, abandoned in a suburban sewer on December 12 last year.

Immediately after the murders came to light, four men, all employees of 26-year-old Vidyadhar, were placed under arrest.

Chintan was also arrested on charges of plotting the crime, and the police had initiated a wild hunt to find Vidyadhar.

He was alleged to be the link between all the accused, the man who had orchestrated the murders. But now, without his arrest and confession for over seventy days after the crime, the cops have little concrete proof against Chintan.

The evidence against Chintan is mainly circumstantial – that he was in touch with Vidyadhar before the crime, that he had visited Hema’s home a week before the murders and hadn’t eaten.

I am not authorised to communicate any information about Vidyadhar Rajbhar to the press. You can ask me about any other case you like.

Mukund Pawar, senior inspector, Kandivli police

Vidyadhar’s flailing chase has clearly cast a great amount of pressure on the Mumbai police, especially since it is mandatory that they file a chargesheet in the case before March 10 – within ninety days of the registration of FIR. With Vidyadhar still absconding, there are chances that the chargesheet will be delayed, and if not, the prosecution’s case is likely to be affected.

Sources said that it is Vidyadhar who can piece the puzzle of sequence in the crime, and it will be his confession that will nail Chintan and the four suspects.

Senior officers, however, refused to respond to the issue.

I cannot comment if Vidyadhar still being missing will affect evidence against Chintan. But yes, there will be no delay in filing the chargesheet.

Dhananjay Kulkarni, deputy commissioner of police (Crime branch)