Mumbai Court Holds Artist Chintan Upadhyay Guilty Of Conspiring, Abetting Murders Of Estranged Wife, Her Lawyer

A Mumbai Sessions Court has convicted acclaimed artist Chintan Upadhyay for conspiring and abetting the murder of his ex-wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani.

Sessions Judge SY Bhosale held three other co-accused guilty for murder. Hearing on sentencing is scheduled on Saturday.

On December 12, 2015, a scrap dealer alerted the Kandivali police about two suspicious looking cardboard boxes floating in a nullah. These boxes contained two bodies, later identified as Hema and Harish, with their hands tied behind their backs and their mouths and eyes taped shut.

Eleven days later, on December 22 Chintan Upadhyay was arrested. The other accused are Vijay Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar, Shivkumar Rajbhar and one juvenile. The main accused, Vidyadhar Rajbhar, is still at large.

The Dindoshi Sessions Court charged Upadhyay and four others for alleged offences of Sections 302 (murder), 396, 201(destruction of evidence), 109 (abetment), and 120B read with 34 of the IPC.

It is the prosecution's case that property disputes and enmity following the couple's divorce led him to plot the murder. The police claimed that it was on Chintan's orders that fabrication artist- Vidyadhar Rajbhar- killed the wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer with help from others.

The Supreme Court granted Upadhyay bail six years after the murder in September 2021.

The prosecution argued that Vidyadhar called his mother and told her that he wanted to surrender before the police and also that he had killed Hema on instructions of Chintan.

Chintan, through his lawyers, denied all the allegations and claimed that he was made a scapegoat.

Appearing for him, Senior Advocate Raja Thakare and Advocate Bharat Manghani contended that Chintan had no motive to eliminate his ex-wife. The divorce had come through and he had already paid a huge amount in maintenance.

Advocates for the other accused, Anil Jadhav and Hassan Ali Mooman questioned the admissibility of the confession statement of one of the accused stating it wasn't voluntary. They further questioned the call records relied on by the prosecution.

The prosecution was represented by Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade. He pointed towards a painting Hema had once found in Chintan's room of a woman resembling her with a macabre line written across it: ‘I will destroy you.’

He submitted that Hema was apprehensive her estranged husband was going to create a big problem for her. "Chintan hated both Hema and Bhambhani" he argued.

The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Bhambhani's wife Poonam. According to the deposition, Hema visited Bhambhani two days before the murder and told him about the picture she had seen in his bedroom.

The prosecution also relied on the deposition of the estranged couple’s domestic help, Lalit Mandal, who categorically said that Chintan never interacted with Hema (after their estrangement) even when he stayed in their Mumbai residence. But days before the murder on December 8, 2015, he bid Hema goodbye thrice as he left for Hema Delhi.