Chintan Upadhyay moves HC challenging conviction on double murder

According to the prosecution, Hema and advocate Bhambhani were smothered to death on December 11, 2015, and the bodies were packed in cardboard boxes and dumped in a nullah in Kandivali West. The next day, a garbage collector discovered the bodies and alerted the police

MUMBAI: Artist Chintan Upadhyay has moved the Bombay high court (HC) challenging his conviction for conspiring to kill his estranged wife, artist Hema Upadhyay, and her lawyer, advocate Harish Bhambhani.

Mumbai, India - Sep 27, 2023 : Artist Chintan Upadhyay is accused of final argument at sessions court in suburban Dindoshi Court at Goregaon, in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Sep 27, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo)

The Dindoshi sessions court on October 10, sentenced Chintan and three others - Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradip Kumar Rajbhar and Vijay Kumar Rajbhar to life imprisonment for killing the two in December 2015.

Chintan’s appeal is scheduled to come up for hearing on October 25 when the division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Gauri Godse is also likely to take up his plea for bail during the pendency of the appeal.

According to the prosecution, Hema and advocate Bhambhani were smothered to death on December 11, 2015, and the bodies were packed in cardboard boxes and dumped in a nullah in Kandivali West. The next day, a garbage collector discovered the bodies and alerted the police.

Investigation revealed that the murders were executed by Chintan’s art fabricator Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who used his employees and contacts to get the duo killed. Vidyadhar, however, is still at large.

On March 8, 2016, Pradeep’s confessional statement was recorded by a metropolitan magistrate, unravelling how the purported conspiracy was hatched by Chintan, and how Vidyadhar and his accomplices executed it.

Chintan had, however, denied the allegations and claimed that he was made a scapegoat and that he had no reason to murder Hema as his divorce plea was granted much before the incident and he had already paid a major chunk of the maintenance money to her.

Additional sessions judge SY Bhosale had, however, accepted the prosecution case and convicted Chintan for criminal conspiracy and the three others for executing the murders on instructions of Chintan and Vidyadhar.