Breakthrough...

He had reached Varanasi from Mumbai by train and was on way to his house in the village when he was arrested on Monday. STF sources claimed he confessed to the crime during interrogation. Officers recovered 11 ATM cards from him, six of which belong to Hema and five to Bhambani. They also found Hema’s husband Chintan Upadhyay’s visiting card on Shiv Kumar Rajbhar.

Police claimed Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, who makes plastic idols, told them he was hired to kill Hema, but did not disclose who hired him. “The accused is one of the killers and we suspect that at least five people are involved. We will interrogate the accused once he is brought here,” said Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police (law and order).

Police said Shiv Kumar Rajbhar told them Hema and her lawyer fell unconscious after they were smothered with a handkerchief dipped in a chemical. They were then strangled to death, police claimed he told them. After the murders all those involved fled the city.

According to STF sources, the Mumbai police’s crime branch traced Kumar’s cellphone to UP after which the UP STF was contacted. On Monday, the joint team traced his location around Gosainpur, 1.5km from the Varanasi airport and arrested him. Bipin Rai, senior inspector, STF, confirmed Kumar’s arrested and said he was being interrogated. Sources in the police said a relative of another accused, who reportedly is also from Kumar’s village, was interrogated.

The bodies were discovered around 7.30pm on Saturday in the drain opposite a crematorium at Dhanukar Wadi in Kandivli (West) by a sweeper. Their bodies were wrapped in plastic sheets and packed in cardboard boxes. The bodies were identified on Sunday. Police suspect the bodies were dumped in the drain between 1am and 4am on Saturday because people who lived in the area told them they had been around in the area until after midnight.

Hema’s body 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 6.30pm on Friday and told him to have his dinner because she would be eating out. Bhambani, too, had told his family he was to have dinner with a client.

Hema was locked in a bitter divorce battle with her husband Chintan, a well-known artist himself, and Bhambani was her lawyer. Chintan was being interrogated by a special team investigating the case until late on Monday evening.