Has artist Chintan Upadhyay confessed to sketching wife Hema’s murder plot?
Mumbai: Hema Upadhyay’s estranged husband Chintan confessed to plotting her and lawyer Haresh Bhambani’s murder during his interrogation, according to a source-based report in Midday.
Chintan, who is also an artist, spilled the beans, after the police confronted him with other four accused in the case, who were made to sit across him. As the police grilled him, the artist cracked under pressure and told investigators that he was fed up with Hema’s demands for alimony and thus hatched a plan to get rid of both her and the laywer.
Chintan told cops that Hema had first demanded Rs 25,000 every month as alimony but the demand later shot up to a lakh. He had already been paying her Rs 40,000 a month. Fearing further harassment, he decided to put an end to it for once and all and contacted the killers for getting the job done. Chintan wanted Bhambani dead to put an end to all the court cases against him.
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Police said that Chintan had come down to Mumbai from Delhi, to meet the killers. In the meeting, he sketched a storyboard in several sheets of paper to explain the murder plot to Vidyadhar Rajbhar alias Gotu, Pradeep and the tempo driver Vijay. It was Chintan who orchestrated the plan to lure Hema into coming to the warehouse with a concocted tale that Gotu had an incriminating video of Chintan with another woman. The killers had first demanded Rs 30 lakhs to do the job but finally settled for Rs 22 lakhs.
Vidyadhar, who is still at large, had arranged one of his employees to call Hema, pretending to be Jaipur-based domestic help of Chintan, about evidence that would help her in the divorce case.
The first call was made from Jaipur in November. Both Chintan and Vidyadhar were there in connection with an art festival, police said.
Hema had asked the caller to come to Dadar to examine the evidence, but Vidyadhar made the artist to come to his warehouse in Kandivali, claiming that his domestic help did not find Dadar safe. Hema agreed to come to he warehouse with her lawyer Harish Bhambhani.
Chintan instructed the tempo driver Vijay to keep a watch while the rest of them executed the murder in the warehouse. The plan was to dump the bodies in a creek, where the accused thought they would either be devoured by animals or rot beyond recognition. It was the tempo driver who reportedly chickened out and decided to tip off the police about the crime. He also told the police that there was another man who had took them to meet Chintan but did not stay back for the meeting. Police have launched a manhunt for the new suspect.
Chintan has been sent to police custody till January 1, while the rest of the accused have been sent to police custody till December 28. Other accused Vijay Rajbhar, Aazad Rajbhar and Pradeep Rajbhar were produced in court, while Shivkumar Rajbhar a.k.a. Sadhu who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh was produced before the court for the second time.
According to a senior police official, Chintan has been booked under Sections 302 (Punishment for murder), 120 (B) (punishment for criminal conspiracy) and Section 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the IPC. The main accused Gotu, is still on the run.
Chintan was under scanner after bodies of noted artist Hema (43) and Harish (65) wrapped in plastic and packed in separate cardboard boxes were found dumped in a drain in suburban Kandivali on December 12.
