Hema Upadhyay-Haresh Bhambhani murder case: Court convicts Chintan Upadhyay, other accused

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A Dindoshi sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday convicted artist Chintan Upadhyay for abetting and conspiring to kill his wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani in the Hema Upadhyay-Haresh Bhambhani murder case. The court also convicted all the other accused in the case.

The other accused - Vijay Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar- were convicted on charges of murder.

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Additional Sessions Judge S Y Bhosale, of the court in suburban Dindoshi, held Upadhyay guilty of abetting and conspiring to kill his wife and her lawyer.

The accused were convicted under sections 302 (Punishment for murder) 120 B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 109 (Punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and when no express provision is made for its punishment) of the IPC.

The court is further likely to hear arguments on the quantum of sentence on October 7.

Hema Upadhyay, an installation artist, and her lawyer Bhambhani were murdered in December 2015. Her estranged husband and artist Chintan Upadhyay is accused of conspiring to have them killed.

Chintan had been on bail and was present in the court when the conviction was pronounced.

Earlier, the sessions court in suburban Dindoshi had completed hearing of the final arguments and reserved the matter for judgement last month.

The prosecution, in its final submission had argued that Chintan Upadhyay was the "pioneer of the conspiracy" to murder his wife and her lawyer.

Chintan was driven by hatred towards the duo, claimed special prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade.

Hema and Bhambhani were killed on December 11, 2015, and the bodies were stuffed into cardboard boxes and thrown into a ditch in suburban Kandivali.

Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who is accused to executing the murders, has been absconding.

Chintan Upadhyay was arrested soon after the murders for allegedly conspiring to eliminate his wife. He later got bail.

The police were unable to crack the double murder and hence implicated him in a false case taking advantage of his and Hema's matrimonial dispute, Chintan's lawyers argued.