Three accused of the murder of artist Hema Upadhyay i.e. Pradeep Rajbhar, Vijay Rajbhar and Azad Rajbhar have been sent to police custody till December 22.
Three accused of the murder of artist Hema Upadhyay i.e. Pradeep Rajbhar, Vijay Rajbhar and Azad Rajbhar have been sent to police custody till December 22. They were detained by the police on Sunday in connection with the murders of Hema and her advocate Haresh Bhambhani. The duo was found murdered and dumped in a drain in Kandivali area last weekend. Police officials said that on December 22, the trio will be produced in court along with Shivkumar Rajbhar, who was nabbed from Uttar Pradesh and is now in police custody till December 22.
Hema’s cousin brother, Deepak Prasad, in his first statement to police, said that Hema used to wear expensive rings in her fingers and carry cheque books and credit cards with her. Mr Prasad asked police to add sections of robbery in the FIR. Thereafter, police started looking for the ring and finally recovered it. Officials informed that police added Section 396 (Robbery) of the IPC against these four.
In court, the prosecution informed that police has recovered the tempo in which bodies were dumped along with the car of the deceased advocate Bhambhani. While DNA tests of the accused are yet to be done, police officials have recovered forensic evidence from the car and tempo and sent the same for testing to FSL. Police informed the court that they have got a few clues and their investigation is showing progress with 22 credit cards of the deceased recovered.
In court, the police asked custody of the three accused because they could not arrest main accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar. A police official requesting anonymity informed The Asian Age that the last location of Vidhyadhar was traced on December 13 after which he had been untraceable. Meanwhile, police stations of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have been alerted. Police sources said that after seven days of the murder, police recorded statements of family members of both the deceased. As many as seven statements have been recorded, including those of one office staff, servant Mandal, Hema’s brother Manish Hirani and Mr Prasad from Hema’s side, and the wife, daughter and son-in-law of Mr Bhambhani.
Mr Prasad told this newspaper, “We are giving several clues to police and they are doing a good job. We clearly see Chintan's role in the murder and we are giving them clues and information and now, it's their job to investigate.-" According to Mr Prasad, Hema’s office boy Shankar informed them and police that within two hours of her going missing, they got a call saying “Beware” which is why they believe Chintan organised the killing.
On Friday, police detained 17-year-old Vipin, son of Vijay Rajbhar, to inquire about his father. Vijay's father Ramaadhar Rajbhar who was present at the police station told this newspaper that on December 11, at about 9 pm, main accused Vidhyadhar had come to their home and told his son to go with him as he wanted to deliver some goods.
