Warehouse owner emerges as

MUMBAI: Investigators probing the murders of 42-year-old artist Hema Upadhyay and her 65-year-old lawyer Haresh Bhambani have narrowed down on two houses facing each other in the thickly populated slum of Laljipada, about 250 metres from 90 feet road in Kandivli (West).

Owned by Vidyadhar Rajbhar, these flats have served as warehouses for Hema’s and her husband Chintan’s artworks since the couple shot to prominence after arriving in Mumbai in 1998.

Hema’s association with Vidyadhar’s father Vanshraj, who took care of her works through his firm Vanshraj Arts, dates back to the early 2000s.

The two shared a cordial relationship, and Chintan’s father Vidyasagar knew Vanshraj too.

The trust in Hema’s and Vanshraj’s relationship can be gauged from the fact that some paintings remain on the walls of the 10x10 room in the Durga Maa Shejar Samiti Chawl, which has a mezzanine floor as well.

Three years ago, Vanshraj died of a heart attack, and his 25-year-old son Vidyadhar took over his business.

On Sunday, after Hema’s and Haresh’s bodies were identified, Vidyadhar became the key suspect in the double murder.

A police team is searching for the 25-year-old.

Sources close to the investigation said they are probing leads that hint at differences between Hema and Vidyadhar over a payment for paintings.

Vinod Chauhan, a neighbour of the Rajbhars, said, “I have known the family for the past seven years, since I came to live here. They own both the houses and used to live in one and work in the other.”

Vidyadhar got married around 2011 and soon shifted to a flat in MHADA Colony in Charkop with his wife and their six- to seven-month-old daughter.

While Chauhan claimed he didn’t see or hear anything unusual on Friday night from the Rajbhars’ houses, a peek inside revealed cardboard boxes neatly piled in a corner along with plastic sheets similar to those used to wrap Hema’s and Haresh’s bodies.

The room also showed signs of a hurried exit, with a frying pan on a kerosene stove and a steel tumbler and plate scattered in a makeshift kitchen.

A police source said the warehouse also contained chemicals used in paintings and that Hema and Haresh could have been forced to inhale a poisonous substance there before being strangulated.