Mumbai police make headway in double murder

TWO SUSPECTS FROM UTTAR PRADESH ARRESTED, FOUR OTHERS DETAINED

Mumbai police have arrested two people from Uttar Pradesh for the murder of contemporary artist Hema Upadhyay, 43, and her lawyer, Harish Bhambhani, 65. Four other men have also been detained.

A police team earlier tipped off their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and gone to Varanasi on suspicion that the culprits have taken shelter there.

The Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh detained the main suspect, Sadhu Rajbhar, who had called up the artist to meet her saying he had some fresh evidence against her estranged husband, Chintan Upadhyay, who is also an artist.

Rajbhar is being questioned as he was the last person to talk to her on Friday evening.

Criminal lawyer Bhambhani, who lived in King’s Circle in central Mumbai, with his wife and daughter, had left his home at 6.30pm on Friday and told his daughter that he was with Hema discussing a case.

Their bodies, stuffed in cardboard boxes and wrapped in plastic, were first spotted in a drain in the suburb of Kandivili West by a municipal worker who alerted the police on Saturday evening. When the boxes were opened, police found Bhambhani was gagged and his hands tied behind his back while Hema’s hands were also behind her back, but not tied. The duo could had been strangled. Autopsy reports are awaited.

“As per our probe, their bodies were transported in a tempo [van] from suburban Juhu to Kandivili [West],” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni yesterday.

The transporter told police that he dumped two boxes in a Kandivili drain on Saturday afternoon assuming that it contained broken antiques.

Case registered

The police registered a murder case under Sections 302 of the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons. Police also suspect the involvement of the owner of a warehouse where the Hema had stored her artwork due to a dispute over money. Hema and her estranged husband, whom she had married in 1998, had been locked in a bitter divorce battle since 2010.