Double murder case: HC denies bail to artist Chintan Upadhyay

There are sufficient grounds to believe that artist Chintan Upadhyay was involved in the double murder of his estranged wife, Hema Upadhyay, also an artist, and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambani, the Bombay high court said on Monday while rejecting his bail plea

There are sufficient grounds to believe that artist Chintan Upadhyay was involved in the double murder of his estranged wife, Hema Upadhyay, also an artist, and her lawyer, Haresh Bhambani, the Bombay high court said on Monday while rejecting his bail plea.

Mumbai, India - Oct. 7, 2023: artist Chintan Upadhyay is accused final argument at of sessions court in suburban Dindoshi in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, October 7, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

A division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse, however, did not delve into the merits of the case.

Later, speaking to HT, Chintan’s lawyer, Bharat Manghani, said he would appeal the bail plea’s rejection before the Supreme Court.

Chintan approached the Bombay high court on October 23, days after the Dindoshi sessions court convicted him for abetting and conspiring in the December 2015 double murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

During the hearing, his counsel, senior advocate Amit Desai, argued that there was no evidence of Chintan’s involvement in the crime besides the confession of his co-accused, Pradeep Kumar Rajbhar, which was retracted later.

Pradeep’s statement that the conspiracy was hatched in Chembur is nothing but a ‘figment of his imagination’, Desai claimed. Chintan, according to Desai, agreed that he was in Chembur on the alleged date of the meeting, December 8, 2015, but he was not present there because he was visiting a friend.

Desai also relied on the call detail record to claim that the conspiracy meeting never took place on the alleged date because Vidhyadar Rajbhar, another co-accused, was in Malad on that day. Vidhyadar is the prime accused in the case and currently absconding, according to police.

Additional public prosecutor JP Yagnik and Haresh’s counsel, advocate Anil Lalla, however, objected to these claims, saying there is ample evidence besides the conspiracy meeting to prove Chintan’s involvement in the crime.

There is a testimony from Hema’s servant that proves differences existed between Hema and Chintan, they said. Moreover, the fact that the divorce case was still pending before the Bombay high court gave him an adequate motive to be involved in the crime, the duo said.

They also relied on the call detail record to prove that constant communication happened between all the accused and said CCTV footage put Hema and Haresh at the scene of the crime. The fact that the accused didn’t have an independent motive to kill the duo further proved the involvement of Chintan in the murder, Yagnik and Lalla added.

Nearly eight years after the incident, the sessions court on October 5 convicted Chintan and his three co-accused - Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradeep Kumar Rajbhar, and Vijay Kumar Rajbhar – in the double murder case. In a ruling five days later, on October 10, the court handed down life imprisonment to Chintan and the three others.

Hema and Haresh were smothered to death on December 11, 2015. Their bodies, stuffed in cardboard boxes, were found in a nullah in Kandivali West.