Chintan Upadhyay held guilty of abetting, conspiring murder of estranged wife, lawyer

Three other accused — Vijay Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar — were found guilty on charges, including murder under section 302, destruction of evidence under section 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court will hear the accused on the quantum of punishment on Saturday.

Chintan was out on bail since 2021 when the Supreme Court granted him bail taking into account that he had spent six years in jail and the trial was not complete. On Thursday, after he was pronounced guilty by the court in Dindoshi, additional sessions judge SY Bhosale directed for him to be taken into custody till October 7, when the court will hear him and the three other accused on the sentence they should be given.

Special public prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade said that he will be seeking the maximum punishment of death penalty since the incident involved the murder of a lawyer.

According to the case, Hema and Bhambhani went missing on December 11, 2015. The next day, a scrap collector alerted the police that two suspicious-looking cardboard boxes wrapped in white plastic were seen floating in a nullah in the northern suburb of Kandivali. The bodies of Hema and Bhambhani were found inside the boxes.

Ten days later, the Mumbai Police arrested Chintan claiming that the murders were done by the co-accused at his behest over his strained relationship with Hema. The prosecution had claimed that Chintan had hatched the murder conspiracy with Vidyadhar Rajbhar, a fabricator, who was employed earlier by the couple to make their artwork, promising money in exchange for the killings. Vidyadhar has been on the run since the murders and is named as an absconding accused in the case.

The prosecution examined 56 witnesses and CCTV footage at Kandivali in the northern suburbs of Mumbai where Hema and Bhambhani could be seen entering Vidyadhar’s Kandivali unit, where the three accused met them.

Police claimed Hema was lured by Vidyadhar claiming that he had information to give her on Chintan related to their matrimonial dispute. Bhambhani, who was representing Hema in her divorce and other related proceedings, decided to accompany her.

Police claimed that once they entered the unit, they were smothered to death. The nature of injuries on Bhambhani’s body showed that he had put up a fight, trying to resist the attack. The three then packed their bodies into cardboard boxes and dumped them in a nullah. After they did not return, Hema’s domestic help and Bhambhani’s family filed missing complaints. The bodies were found the next day.

Chintan’s co-accused Pradeep had given a confession before a magistrate in 2016 but he later retracted it stating that he had given it under pressure. The defence lawyers for the accused, including Raja Thakare, Bharat Manghani and Anil Jadhav, had said that the confession could not be relied upon. SPP Bagade, however, said that the confession was admissible and there was corroborative evidence to prove its authenticity, showing that the murder was committed as per instructions of Chintan.

Police also claimed that Vidyadhar had made a call to his mother where he made an extra-judicial confession to her about his involvement in the murders. The prosecution also relied on Call Data Records (CDR) between the accused.

Chintan had submitted that there was no evidence to link him to the murders and that he was in Delhi when the murders took place. He further said that he had no motive to commit the crime as their matrimonial dispute was over after the family court granted them divorce in October 2014. He also said that four days before the deaths, he had paid Rs 2 lakh towards maintenance, apart from Rs 16 lakh paid as alimony as directed by the family court.

Chintan had also said that he was falsely implicated without any evidence as police was unable to solve the case. He said that he was assaulted by the police in 2015, forcing him to falsely take the blame for the murders.

Police claimed that Chintan was in Mumbai between December 1 and 8, 2015, to attend a court hearing and was staying at the common residence shared by Hema and him in Juhu. While leaving, Chintan said “goodbye” to Hema thrice and uploaded the song Alvida on his Facebook page, police said.

Police also claimed that he had made a sketch of a “woman resembling Hema” with “I will destroy you” written on it. Police had claimed that these showed that Chintan was linked to the murders.

After the accused were convicted, family members of Hema and Bhambhani, who were present in court, broke into tears. Hema’s brother, Manish Hirani, said that he had been fighting for justice for his sister for years and that he recollected her being fond of art from the time she was a young girl. He said that she came to Mumbai in 1998 after their marriage.

Bhambhani’s family, too, sought maximum punishment for the accused. “Two families were destroyed by this crime. My brother was just doing his job as an advocate. Why was he killed? Imagine the suffering they must have gone through and the suffering the families have faced all these years,” said Gope Bhambhani.

On Saturday, the accused and the prosecution will make their submissions on the punishment they are to be given. The court is then likely to pronounce the sentence.