Hema Upadhyay, Harish Bhambhani murders: Pradeep Rajbhar’s confession was proved to be true and voluntary and duly corroborated: HC

The Bombay High Court has refused to suspend the sentence of artist Chintan Upadhyay, who was convicted for the murder of his wife and her lawyer. The court stated that the confession of a co-accused, supported by corroborating evidence, was true and voluntary.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) refused to suspend the sentence of artist Chintan Upadhyay observing that the confession of co-accused Pradeep Rajbhar, which implicated Upadhyay, was supported by corroborating evidence and was true and voluntary.

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The Dindoshi sessions court has sentenced Chintan and three others to life imprisonment for murdering his estranged wife, artist Hema Upadhyay, and her lawyer, advocate Harish Bhambhani.

“The confession made by co-accused No.2-Pradeep is duly corroborated by the circumstantial evidence on record i.e. the visit of the co-accused to Jaipur to applicant’s father’s house to meet the applicant; their stay in a hotel; and call detail records (CDR) of the applicant and Vidyadhar,” said the division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Gauri Godse in its December 11 order. The detailed order became available on Monday.

On October 10, additional sessions judge SY Bhosale convicted Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradip Kumar Rajbhar and Vijay Kumar Rajbhar for murdering the two and Chintan for conspiracy and abetment and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

Investigation revealed that the murders were executed by Chintan’s art fabricator Vidyadhar, who used his employees and contacts to get the duo killed. On March 8, 2016, Pradeep’s confession was recorded by a metropolitan magistrate, unravelling how the purported conspiracy was hatched by Chintan, and how Vidyadhar and his accomplices executed it.

While Chintan claimed that the confession was retracted by Pradeep, the high court found nothing on record to show that the accused had retracted the confession and what the defence termed as an application for retraction of confession could not be termed so. Instead, the bench said the confession was found to be duly proved before the trial court as true and voluntary.

The bench also observed that the confession was corroborated by other circumstantial evidence like the statements of Ola / Uber drivers who picked up Chintan from Phoenix Mall in Lower Parel and dropped him at Chembur where he met Vidyadhar and Pradeep and told Vidyadhar the task to be done, and then from Chembur to the Domestic Airport.

The bench added that the confession was corroborated by the Call Details Record showing calls between Chintan and Vidyadhar. It added that the confession is also corroborated by CCTV footage showing Hema and advocate Bhambhani entering Vidyadhar’s Laljipada-based fabrication unit along with him, CCTV footage showing the accused loading two cardboard boxes, in which the bodies were later found, on a tempo, and the Honda City car used by the victims to reach the spot of the incident.