Mumbai Double Murder: Suspects Give Investigators Fresh Leads

Arrested suspects have given Mumbai Police fresh leads in the double murder case. Hunt is on for the main accused.

Hema Upadhyay and Shivkumar Rajbhar, who has admitted to her murder. (This image has been altered by The Quint)

Interrogation of Detained Suspects Yields Fresh Leads

The interrogation of the four detained suspects in the double murder of noted artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer, Harish Bhambhani, has given investigators fresh leads on the whereabouts of the main accused, Vidya Rajbhar.

According to the police, Vidya’s arrest would shed light on if the killing was the fallout of a financial dispute between him and Hema, or whether it was a contract killing ordered by her estranged husband Chintan Upadhyay, who remains under scanner.

Meanwhile, the police has sealed Vidya’s warehouse in suburban Kandivali (West). The bodies of the victims were found packed in cardboard boxes in a drain near the warehouse. Vidya, a resident of Shamsi Housing Society in Kandivali (West), was zeroed in as the main culprit following sustained questioning of the four persons detained in connection with the murders of Hema and Harish.

A manhunt was launched for Vidya immediately after Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu, was detained by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in Varanasi yesterday, following a request by the Mumbai police.

“We killed them on orders of Vidya,” he had told a TV channel while seated in a police vehicle upon his detention. Asked how the killings were executed, he said, “We used handkerchiefs soaked in a chemical.” Three other suspects in the case, Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Vijay Rajbhar, were detained in Mumbai on Sunday. They have since been arrested.

Confession on Camera

Shivkumar confessed to having called up Hema on Friday to meet her, and having had an argument with her over shares worth Rs 5 lakh the day before the murder. His confessions were made on camera, while speaking to a TV channel.

On December 13, the bodies of two persons were found in separate cardboard boxes lying near a drain in suburban Mumbai. The bodies, identified as Hema and Harish’s, were later sent for autopsy.

According to the police, both bodies were found with their hands and legs tied with ropes inside the boxes.

Also on The Quint:
Hema Upadhyay’s Last Rites and the Media’s Insensitive Frenzy
‘Artist: Hema Upadhyay. Medium: Soulful. Year: 2015’