Hema Upadhyay’s Husband Chintan Met Vidyadhar Days Before Murder

Hema Upadhyay had received a call hours before she was killed, warning of a threat to her life.

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

Mumbai artist Hema Upadhyay, who was found murdered last weekend along with her lawyer Harish Bhambhani, had received a call hours before she was killed, warning of a threat to her life, police sources told The Indian Express. The call was allegedly made by a person working in the studio of the absconding accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar, sources said.

Less than a fortnight before artist Hema and Harish were murdered, her estranged husband Chintan Upadhyay allegedly met Vidyadhar in Jaipur at the house of Chintan’s parents, reports The Indian Express.

Anita Bhambhani, the daughter of Hema’s lawyer, has told the police that her father and his client were scheduled to meet Chintan’s servant who had claimed to have video clips of his employer with three women.

Hema and Chintan were engaged in a legal tussle over various issues, including their divorce that had been granted by a family court.

“Vidyadhar had arranged for some ‘servant person’ who worked at Chintan’s house in Jaipur to come to Mumbai and meet Hema and my father and try sell some evidence that will help Hema’s cases against Chintan,” according to Anita’s statement, examined by The Indian Express.

He was willing to give the clip to Hema whose name he had heard… He wanted to leave Jaipur and return to his village in Uttar Pradesh but wanted Rs 2 lakh in exchange for the clips. Bhambhani suggested that Vidyadhar should bring this “servant” to Dadar station where he and Hema would check the clips and decide if this helped their legal case against Chintan.  

The statement 

After the meeting with Vidyadhar, Chintan came to Mumbai, but Vidyadhar stayed on. Vidyadhar then contacted Hema from Jaipur and told her about a servant who had videos of Chintan. Later, Vidyadhar came to Mumbai when Chintan had left the city. This has raised several doubts.

Police source

Harish’s wife Poonam has told investigators:

• Chintan drew a caricature of a woman on piece of paper with words written ‘I will destroy you’ written on it. Hema had sent a photo of it on Whatsapp to Bhambhani.
  
• Hema spotted a microphone in Chintan’s room, under his sofa, the police are now also investigating if the Juhu apartment where Hema lived with Chintan had been bugged.
  
• My husband received the picture via WhatsApp and later went to the house to check on the microphone himself.
  

However, so far no evidence has been found related to a caricature or microphone from the Juhu house, according to the police.

The police investigating the double murder case told the court that they have recovered a ring worn by Hema at the time of murder and also the vehicle in which their bodies were transported. The police gave this information to a magistrate in Borivali when three of the arrested accused – Vijay Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Azad Rajbhar were produced in the court, which extended till December 22 the police remand of the trio.

The bodies in cardboard boxes were carried in the tempo from the Kandivali art workshop-cum-warehouse of Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who is the prime accused.