Hema Upadhyay murder case: Motive behind killing still unknown

Police said the arrest of the main Vidhyadhar, will shed light on the case

The high-profile Hema Upadhyay murder case has become more challenging for the police because even after nabbing four accused, the motive behind the murder remains unknown.

According to police, arrest of the main accused, Vidhyadhar, will shed light on the motive. According to sources, police is working on two theories as of now; one is that killing was the fallout of a financial dispute between Vidhyadhar and Hema and the other is that it was a contract killing.

With Vidhyadhar having been in constant touch with Hema’s estranged husband, Chintan Upadhyay, police is keeping an eye on the latter. A senior officer requesting anonymity told The Asian Age, “Three were arrested by us and one will be brought from Varanasi. The main accused Vidhyadhar is absconding but we suspect that one more person is also wanted, who is unknown, and only Vidhyadhar can inform us that our assumption is right or not.”

The three accused, Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Vijay Rajbhar were presented in a metropolitan magistrate court on Monday and sent to police custody till December 19. Shivprakash Rajbhar aka Sadhu who was detained in Varanasi, will be brought to Mumbai either on Wednesday morning or Tuesday late night. Sadhu, who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force, told the police, “We killed them on the orders of Vidhyadhar and stuffed handkerchiefs soaked in chemical into their mouths to kill them.”

Hema and her advocate, Haresh Bhambani, were killed on the second floor of the workshop of main accused, Vidhyadhar Rajbhar. A police source informed The Asian Age that the workshop is a flat-cum-warehouse near Durga Mata Shejar Samiti Chawl of Gandhi Nagar, Kandivali west, where Vidhyadhar had called Hema and later, killed her.

According to sources, Hema had to pay at least '5 lakh to Vidhyadhar for his labour but was refusing to pay him. Vidhyadhar is in the business of manufacturing and selling fibre glass, which is used by Hema and Chintan, also an artist, for their installations. Hema wanted Vidhyadhar to give her contact details of Chintan’s clients as Vidhyadhar used to earlier work for Chintan and export his artwork. After being separated, Hema had a business rivalry with her husband and wanted to grab his clients, so she asked Vidhyadhar for their details and said she would pay him only after he gave these details, sources said.