Hema Upadhyay murder: Police struggle to find strong evidence

Mumbai: Thirteen days after Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani were found murdered, officials are struggling to get strong evidence against the arrested estranged husband of Hema —Chintan Upadhyay. Police sources said Chintan was produced in court on December 22 but till date, he has not been cooperating with officials at all.

Sources said one of the four accused in custody informed police that a meeting took place between Chintan and Vidhyadhar in Jaipur. Thereafter, a police team was sent to Jaipur to check on details of the meeting. Meanwhile, another team checked in Chembur to see whether Chintan met anyone during his stay there. Officials suspect Vidhyadhar met Chintan in Chembur. Chintan’s Juhu flat was also searched.

Sources said police are now checking bank transactions of Vidhyadhar and the other accused, including Chintan, to confirm the contract angle behind the murder.

On Thursday, Vidhyadhar’s mother, sister and wife visited Kandivali police station to give their statements. In her statement, Vidhyadhar’s sister, Geeta, questioned how her brother was surviving as he had no money when he escaped.

Commenting on this, an official informed The Asian Age that '800 had been stolen from Hema’s purse so they were of the view that Vidhyadhar was surviving on that money. Police believe tempo driver Vijay was actively involved whereas according to his lawyer, Vijay was standing outside the warehouse at the time of the murder.

At about 8.30 pm, Hema, along with Haresh, reached Vidhyadhar’s workshop where he, Sadhu, Pradeep and Aazad along with Haresh on the left and Hema on the right sat in Vidhyadhar’s cabin. Sources said Sadhu and Aazad each had a handkerchief soaked in chemical in their pockets as they intended to kill the duo. During the conversation, Sadhu and Pradeep attacked Haresh while Aazad attacked Hema as Vidhyadhar held her from the back.

The murders accomplished, Vidhyadhar, along with Sadhu, left without informing the others for Dadar station but as there was no train, they moved to CST and caught a train to Delhi which was waiting at the station. At Bhusaval, Vidhadhar received a mobile company’s promotional call and after reaching Itarasi, they both got off the train.

At that point, Vidhyadhar told Sadhu that he was going to surrender to police and gave him 12 cards each of Hema and her lawyer and told him to catch a train for Varanasi. Then, Vidhyadhar went missing.