Hema Upadhyay murder: Artist Chintan has not blamed anyone for arrest

Mumbai: Artist Chintan Upadhyay, who is in police custody in connection with murder of his estranged wife Hema and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani, is not blaming anyone for his arrest, police said. Chintan was under police lens ever since the double murder came to light on December 12. He was arrested on Tuesday after being grilled for 10 days, fuelling speculation that he was nabbed due to pressure from some quarters. Hema's relatives strongly suspected that Chintan had some role in the twin murders, which shocked the art world where the two were well-known figures.

"He is very calm during questioning and has refused to blame anyone for his arrest," said a police official today. If required, police may summon the 43-year-old artist's father for questioning, he said. To a query about items being found from the spot where the bodies were recovered, he said cellphones and some other objects were retrieved from the scene, but they could belong to anyone and not necessarily to the accused.

Besides Chintan, police have so far arrested four others - Vijay Rajbhar, Sanjay Rajbhar, Shivkumar Rajbhar and Pradip Rajbhar -- in connection with the double murder. Vidyadhar Rajbhar, a key accused, is still at large. The murder of Hema (43) and Bhambhani came to light after their bodies, stuffed in two boxes, were recovered from a drain in suburban Kandivali. While Chintan is in police custody till January 1, the remand of his co-accused will end on December 28.

Chintan was placed under arrest after police found inconsistency in his statements. Police wanted to question him in custody to establish the motive behind the gruesome murders.