Before murders,
Judge extends Chintan’s police custody to Monday after prosecutors say police need more time
MUMBAI: On Friday, the metropolitan magistrate court at Borivli extended the police custody of artist Chintan Upadhyay until Monday in connection with the murders of his wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani in December.
The Kandivli police sought Chintan’s custody for four more days, saying they needed to interrogate him on several aspects of the case. The investigating officer told the court that the December 11 murders were planned in advance and that Chintan had travelled to Mumbai to meet all the accused just two days before the killings. The officer also alleged that the sedatives recovered from the warehouse of absconding accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar had been ordered from a person in Bangalore well in advance.
The officer told the court that police seized several articles from Chintan, including diaries, sketches, pen drives, a portable hard drive and a memory card. He said the sketches and diaries contain information that the police need to verify with Chintan. Many of the sketches were made a day before the killings, he claimed, and possibly contain information about them. He also said the police are checking the contents of the hard drive, pen drives and memory card and may need to question Chintan about it.
He added that the last call made by Vidhyadhar has been traced to a village, but did not specify which one. “It has been found that many artists live in the villages near Vidhyadhar’s last known location. We are in the process of tracing him and believe that Chintan knows his whereabouts,” the officer said.
The public prosecutor said that Chintan is the main accused as he had given the others a contract to kill Hema and Haresh. “He visited the city two days before the murders and met all the accused,” said the prosecutor. Chintan’s lawyer Niteen Pradhan contested the prosecution’s claims. “Soon after the incident, Chintan was called by crime branch and interrogated for 10 days. The police have not produced the case diary of the crime branch or given a concrete reason Chintan’s arrest even after his interrogation by the crime branch.” Pradhan also said that the police have not yet revealed the cause of death of the two victims. “If the [post-mortem] report says that it was accidental, the case falls,” Pradhan argued. The court remanded Chintan in police custody until Monday, citing the complex nature of the investigation.