Hema Upadhyay Would Have Been 45 Today; The Accused Await Trial

Late artist Hema Upadhyay’s perpetrators are still on the loose. A key suspect Vidyadhar’s whereabouts are unknown.

Had renowned Mumbai-based artist Hema Upadhyay survived the murder attempt on her, she would have escaped being stuffed into a wooden coffin and her body being dumped into a sewer. Had she lived, she would have been 45 years old today, probably still scaling heights in the art world.

But a helpless Hema succumbed to the premeditated attack, allegedly masterminded by her husband, Chintan Upadhyay, also a known figure in the art world. Even though Chintan was arrested soon after the crime in December 2015, uncertainty continues to loom over the fate of Vidyadhar Rajbhar, a fabrication workshop owner.

Rajbhar allegedly committed the crime at the behest of Chintan, killing Hema and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambhani, in a case of double murder that shocked the country.

Also Read: Chintan Upadhyay: There’s More Than Meets the Eye

The 'Missing Link' in This Puzzle

A fugitive for one and a half years now, Rajbhar has left investigators perplexed. He is the crucial missing link in the case – the link which can establish Chintan’s guilt, and prove that he was the one who had masterminded the double murder.

But even as investigators optimistically, yet inconsequentially, trace every new lead that pops up, the trail seems to be getting colder, and Hema’s relatives believe that it is Chintan’s supporters who are backing Rajbhar’s fugitive life.

The artist community is huge, and there are about 62 to 69 artists who are supporting Chintan, believe that he is innocent. We suspect that some of them are helping Rajhbhar while he is on the run. How can an escapee survive his run without money? Maybe they are helping him. The police suspect he has fled to Nepal or Bangladesh. How will Rajbhar, a slum dweller, know his way outside the country? We suspect that Chinatn’s artist supporters have sent him abroad. They are financially well-off. Also, we suspect that they’re feeding information to him about the police’s moves.

Sanchu Menon, Hema’s family friend, to The Quint

Also Read: Chintan Had Been Harassing Hema for a Decade Now: Hema’s Cousin

A 36-year-old businessman residing in Navi Mumbai, Menon still attends all the hearings concerning the case, and is the family’s spokesperson.

Menon added,

We are positive that Rajbhar will be located, and once that happens, several new accused will be identified for aiding and abetting his survival after absconding.

Vidyadhar Rajbhar’s last location, according to the Mumbai police, was the Chennai-Coimbatore highway. That was one and a half months after the double murder. Ever since, several police teams have spanned out across India, Rajbhar’s hometown has been tapped, his wife and relatives have been kept under surveillance, his phone is being constantly monitored, however, to no avail.

Exasperated and doubtful that he could sustain such a long escape, the cops, in October 2016, figured he must be dead. Several mortuaries across the country were subsequently scanned but he could not be found. Without Rajbhar’s corpse, the law says he’s still alive, and so is the wild goose hunt for him.

Who knows what he looks like now? Whether he has shaved his head or kept a beard or put on weight or lost some more. No one has a clue. He must have definitely altered his appearance. My friends and I have visited several cities looking for him; we even declared a prize of Rs 1 lakh for information on him, but no one has approached us. 

We affixed his posters all over Mumbai, Jaipur (where Rajbhar’s father stays), Varanasi (his hometown), Chennai (since his work community is strong there), so many other places. For seven to eight months after Hema was killed, I couldn’t sleep. I’d just keep thinking what else to do, where else to look, where he could be. No one has the answers.

Sanchu Menon to The Quint

Menon stated that he also scoured several holy places across the country, including Shirdi and Tirupati, since fugitives, after committing crimes as heinous as murders, are known to visit temples to ask for forgiveness. But these efforts turned out to be futile as well.

Also Read: Remembering the Soulful Artist Hema Upadhyay on Her Birthday

A Game of ‘Catch Me If You Can’

Investigators, when Rajbhar first escaped, were sure of nabbing him. They had two reasons to believe so – he had only a few thousand rupees on his person when we escaped and would soon run out of money; he would want to contact his wife since she had given birth to a baby girl only two months before the murders.

But Rajbhar has successfully sustained his run. Even as the police laid a trap around October 2016 near his house, hoping that he would show up to see his baby girl on her first birthday, Rajbhar refrained from the emotional indulgence. He knew it could cost him his fragile freedom.

These people are not too attached to their families. Immigrants like him normally stay in Mumbai while their families are away in their hometowns. And he wouldn’t commit the mistake of getting in touch with them. It’s not as important as his life, is it? As for the money to support his run, he’s a skilled labour, does specialised work. It’s not difficult for him to find work or make money.

An officer privy to the investigations, to The Quint

The Mumbai police, in March 2017, got a notification from a cell phone network provider saying that Rajbhar’s phone was on, and being used somewhere in Chennai – closer to his last known location. A police team was immediately dispatched to nab him. However, it was learnt that someone else was using the phone.

Similarly, last October, the cell phone’s location was near the Bangladesh border. A police team rushed, but couldn’t find him. The police and the law are doing their jobs, and we are certain that irrespective of Rajbhar’s arrest, Chintan will be convicted, and Hema will get the justice she deserves.

Sanchu Menon to The Quint

The only complaint Menon has with the Mumbai police is about the double murder case being transferred to the Crime Branch from the Kandivli police. He said:

The commissioner of police issued a one-page letter asking the case to be transferred. I didn’t understand why that was done. The Kandivli police were doing such a good job with the investigations, while the crime branch had given Chintan a clean chit. I even wrote to the police commissioner contesting the transfer, but haven’t heard back.

Hema's Memory Lives On

Remembering Hema on her birthday, Menon said:

She was very close to me, and whatever efforts I’ve made and I’m still making, are because I owe them to her. Investigations and law will take their course, but the family’s loss is an irreplaceable one. No justice can bring her back. No arrest can undo their pain. On her birthday, we’ll do what we did last year – buy a cake for her two beloved dogs, Kismat and Lucky.

Bodies of Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambani, were found stuffed in wooden boxes, abandoned in a suburban sewer on 12 December 2015. Immediately after the murders came to light, four men, all employees of 26-year-old Rajbhar, were placed under arrest. Chintan was also arrested on charges of masterminding the crime. The accused are currently awaiting trial.

Also Read: It’s Too Hard to Talk About Her: Friends Remember Hema Upadhyay