Kandivli Double Murder: Rajbhar trail goes cold again, cops back to square one

THE MUMBAI Police that was hopeful of tracking down Vidyadhar Rajbhar — the main accused in the murder of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani — after the phone he was using was activated earlier this year has hit a dead-end again. The phone had remained switched off for a year before it was suddenly used in February, making the police swing into action. The police tracked down the mobile phone’s location to Chennai, but it turned out that the person using the phone had purchased it from a shop, and its owner did not remember who had sold it to him, bringing the police back to square one.

“The last call that Rajbhar had made was to a relative in Surat in February 2016 from a phone stolen from Chennai, after which his phone was switched off. We were tracking his phone, but it remained switched off. After nearly a year, the phone was switched on earlier this year,” said a senior officer. Hopeful, the police formed a team that went to Chennai where the mobile phone was tracked. Since the phone was still active, the police managed to track its location. “Unfortunately, the person using the phone was not Rajbhar. The person using the phone told us that he had purchased it a few weeks back from a mobile shop nearby. Our team went to the mobile shop owner who confirmed that he had sold the phone to the person. He, however, did not remember from whom he had purchased the phone. We also showed him the photograph of Rajbhar but he did not recognise him,” said the officer.

Another officer added, “It could be that Rajbhar sold the phone to someone else who then sold it to the shop owner. However, since the shop did not have a CCTV camera and the owner did not seem to remember the person who sold the phone to him, we are back to square one as far as investigations are concerned.” On December 12, 2015, the Kandivli police had recovered the bodies of Hema (44) and Bhambhani (65) from a drain in Kandivli. While Hema’s husband Chintan Upadhyay and four others — Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar, Vijay Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar alias Sadhu — were arrested in connection with the case, Vidyadhar, who was suspected to have carried out the murder, has been on the run ever since.

Hema and Chintan’s relations were strained and they were fighting a legal battle for divorce. In the chargesheet filed by the police in March, the police said Chintan’s domestic discord with Hema, their property dispute and Hema’s demand for maintenance in a family court and the Bombay High Court were believed to be the motive for the murder conspiracy hatched by him.