The fourth accused in the double murder case of artist Hema Upadhyay and advocate Harsh Bhambani has been remanded to police custody for further probe.
Kandivali police arrested the fourth accused Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu from Varanasi on Tuesday and a magistrate’s court in Borivali on Wednesday remanded him to police custody.
The court remanded Shivkumar to custody till December 22. The Kandivali police has recovered more than 20 debit cards belonging to Hema and her lawyer from Shivkumar. Sources said Shivkumar has confessed to his crime, stating he did it at the behest of his boss Vidyadhar.
The allegations leveled against Shivkumar are the same as the allegations against the accused arrested earlier.
The Kandivali police has told the magistrate’s court they need Shivkumar’s custody, as he is probably aware of the whereabouts of main accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar. The police said they also want to recover more articles of Hema from him.
The police is also probing to find out if Shivkumar used the debit cards to make any transactions. The police is confident of nabbing Vidyadhar and special teams including from the crime branch have spread out to nab him. Vidyadhar’s wife and child are also under police surveillance.
Friends of Chintan, husband of the deceased Hema, who are artists themselves and know the alleged murderers, expressed shock over the accusations.
“We used to deal with them just like Chintan and Hema. In fact Vidyadhar was a well-mannered person. Even while speaking with me he used to look at the ground and speak. His warehouse is at a long distance from the main road in the slum pocket Laljipada. We used to stay there for hours to get our work done. One evening when it had gotten dark, he accompanied me till the main road,” said a woman artist who did not want to be named.
