Artist Hema Upadhyay murder: Prime suspect arrested, three others detained

Lucknow/Mumbai: Mumbai police on Monday detained a key suspect from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the double murder case of well-known installation artist Hema Upadhyaya and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani on the basis of information provided by three already under detention since Sunday.

The suspect, identified as Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu, was tracked down and detained by a Mumbai police team which had rushed to the temple town yesterday following inputs that the culprits might have fled to Uttar Pradesh.

"We haven not arrested but detained Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu in Varanasi," Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti said.

Police had on Sunday detained Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Vijay Rajbhar in Mumbai in connection with the sensational twin-murder.

Based on information provided by the trio, the police detained Sadhu, who is suspected to have played a key role in the murder of the artist and her lawyer, police said.

Read:

Artist Hema Upadhyay murder: Mumbai Police team on suspects' trail in UP

Police suspect property dispute behind Mumbai artist, lawyer’s murder

Mumbai artist, lawyer found murdered and packed in cardboard boxes

One among them had called up Hema on her mobile phone before her murder, police said.

The bodies of Hema (43) and Bhambhani (65), their hands and feet tied with ropes, were recovered stuffed in cardboard boxes from a drain in suburban Kandivali on Saturday following which police were called in.

Their body samples have been sent for chemical analysis and autopsy reports are awaited, a senior police officer said. "As per our probe their bodies (in boxes) were transported in a tempo from suburban Juhu to Kandivali (W)," DCP (Detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said.

Police have also quizzed the driver of the vehicle who dumped the boxes in the drain thinking they contained broken antiques.

The statement of the transporter has been recorded, police said.

Earlier, the police had on Saturday recorded the statement of the watchman at Hema's apartment on Juhu Tara Road and her domestic servant Lalit Mandal.

Hema's husband Chintan, who was in Delhi and arrived in the city yesterday, was also questioned by the Crime Branch. The Baroda-born artist, who was locked in bitter divorce proceedings with her husband, had in 2013 filed a case against Chintan, alleging he painted obscene pictures of women on the walls of their matrimonial home in Mumbai to harass her. Bhambani had represented Hema in the case. 

According to police, Hema's domestic help had filed a missing complaint at Santacruz police station on Saturday after she did not return home whole of Friday. Bhambhani's younger daughter Anita had also filed a similar complaint at Matunga police station the same day.

Hema was last seen by the watchman of her apartment building at 11 am on Friday. According to Anita, Bhambhani had left his King Circle home in Matunga to meet Hema at around 6.30 pm on Friday.

Investigators said Bhambhani met Hema at her art studio in Andheri around 8.30 PM on Friday before talking to his wife on phone. Thereafter the Bhambhani family could not establish any contact with him despite calling him several times.

Police suspect that an unidentified person known to the duo had called the lawyer to give fresh evidence in a property dispute involving Hema, who was suspected to have been strangled with Bhambhani by the perpetrators of the crime.

Additional Commissioner of Police (North Region) Fatehsingh Patil claimed his team was "very close" to cracking the case.

Police said Bhambhani's car, in which he had left for the meeting, is still to be traced.