Bodies of artist, her lawyer found stuffed in city drain

3 held in connection with murder of Hema Upadhyay and Haresh Bhambani

MUMBAI: A gruesome double murder that points to a wellplanned conspiracy has come to light with the police recovering the bodies of noted artist Hema Upadhyay, 42, and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambani, 62, packed in cardboard boxes and wrapped in plastic sheets from a drain in Kandivli.

The victims were identified on Sunday after the police got a call on Saturday evening from a man who saw a leg pop out of a plastic-wrapped package in a drain in the Dhanukar Wadi area of Kandivli (West).

Hema was found with her hands tied behind her back, while Bhambani’s face was mangled and his eyes covered with black tape. She had called up her domestic help, Lalit Mandal, around 6.30 pm on Friday evening and told him to have his dinner as she would be eating out. Bhambani, too, had told his family that he was to have dinner with a client.

Hema was locked in a bitter divorce battle with her husband,

the well-known artist Chintan Upadhayay, and Bhambani was her lawyer. Chintan, who was away in Delhi, was called back to Mumbai by the Kandivli police who were now speaking to him.

The police, who have detained three people who they suspect helped dispose of the bodies, said that prima facie it appeared a pillow was used to suffocate them to death. The bodies were each stuffed in a cardboard box and then wrapped in a white plastic cover, which was sewn up, said Mumbai police spokesperson Dhananjay Kulkarni, deputy commissioner of police.

The bodies were discovered around 7.30pm on Saturday in the drain opposite a crematorium by a sweeper who noticed the large boxes. The police suspect the bodies were dumped in the drain between 1 am and 4 am on Saturday as people who lived in the area told them that they had been around in the area till after midnight.