For the first time since the hearing on the bail application of artist Chintan Upadhyay started, the prosecution has made bold comments on him. In the Dindoshi sessions court during the hearing of his bail application, the public prosecutor said that Chintan was behind the conspiracy to murder his wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani. The prosecutor informed the court that Chintan’s call detail record data confirmed his meeting with the main accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar in Chembur. The police had questioned two drivers from private cab service providers who have stated that Chintan went to Chembur on Dec. 8. Since the day he was detained, the police has suspected that Chintan had a secret meeting with Vidhyadhar in Chembur to conspire about the double murder.
Along with this, CCTV footage that was recovered by the police from Kandivali, where the murder occurred, Hema was seen with Bhambani meeting Vidhyadhar.
In the court during arguments, the prosecution also said that Vidhyadhar had called his mother and in her police statement she informed the officials that Vidhyadhar told her on the phone that he had killed Hema after Chintan told him to do so. Along with it, Judge of the Dindoshi sessions court S.A. Quazi was informed by the prosecution that as per the CDR, it was Chintan who called up Hema’s domestic help Lalit to inquire about her when she went missing, which proved the statement of Chintan wrong, as the artist had said that he was informed by Lalit that Hema had gone missing.
On the other hand, advocate Vinod Gangwal, who had filed an intervention on behalf of Hema’s family to put a stay on bail, claimed and showed legal documents to The Asian Age which were produced by Hema in the Bombay high court. These documents mention that Chintan was very cruel to Hema and he often used to beat her. One time he allegedly told her to purchase cigarettes for him in the middle of night, spilled hot tea on her and beat her badly. Almost two months before her death, Hema had told her brother, Manish Hiravi that she was scared of her husband.
