Chintan Upadhyay held for wife Hema’s murder

Chintan Upadhyay, estranged husband of artist Hema Upadhyay, was on Tuesday arrested in the double murder case of his wife and her lawyer in suburban Kandivali here and sent to police custody till January 1 by a Mumbai court.

According to police, Chintan, also an artist, was the “prime suspect” in the murder case of Hema (43) and her lawyer Harish Bhambani (65) and wanted him to be interrogated further to clearly establish the motive behind the crime.

He was arrested earlier in the day after sustained grilling by police which found inconsistency in his statements, Additional CP (North) Fatesingh Patil said.

Seeking his remand, the police told Magistrate Prasad Kulkarni that since the motive of the crime was still not clear, they want to further interrogate Chintan and take him to places outside the state as part of the investigation.

During questioning, Chintan said that he had met the absconding accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar at an undisclosed location and hatched a conspiracy to kill the duo, the court was told. “Chintan conspired and took the help of other accused in committing the murder,” the cops said.

Police also said that the crime was the offshoot of the cases pending between the sparring couple.

Hema, a Baroda-born installation artist, was locked in bitter divorce proceedings with Chintan. She had in 2013 filed a case against him alleging that he painted obscene pictures of women on the walls of their matrimonial home in Mumbai to harass her.