Hema Upadhyay murder case cracked, Mumbai Police arrests Chintan Upadhyay

Mumbai Police arrested artist Hema Upadhyay's estranged husband Chintan in the wee hours of Tuesday on charges of killing his wife and her lawyer on December 11.

Pic Courtesy: (PTI Photo via Twitter)

Mumbai: Mumbai Police arrested artist Hema Upadhyay's estranged husband Chintan in the wee hours of Tuesday on charges of killing his wife and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani on December 11.

Chintan, also an artist, was a "suspect" in the murder case of his wife and her lawyer Harish Bhambani and he was detained last night after fresh evidence in the case surfaced, the police said.

Subsequently, Chintan was arrested early morning after the police found inconsistency in his statements, Additional CP (North) Fatesingh Patil said.

He will be produced in a local court later in the day.

According to the police, Chintan was under scanner after bodies of noted installation 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.

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Based on the statements of Hema's relatives, Chintan was constantly grilled for days by several police officers in connection with the twin murders.

Besides Chintan, the police have arrested four persons in the case - Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar, Vijay Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu and have booked them for murder and causing disappearance of evidence.

The custody of all the four accused ends today. Except Sadhu, who was nabbed from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the remaining three - who are in the business of manufacturing and selling fibre glass used by Hema and Chintan for their installations - were picked up from Kandivali.

Hema's family members had earlier accused Chintan for killing her. They demanded that Chintan's name should be added in the FIR as the prime accused.

The family alleged that a property dispute led to the murder of Hema as Chintan was not ready to give her share of the property.

With PTI inputs