Hema Upadhyay murder case: ‘I was threatened to confess conspiracy’

Lawyer produces confessional statement of accused Pradeep Rajbhar in court.

The confessional statement of Pradeep Rajbhar, an accused in the Hema Upadhyay murder case, was produced in the Dindoshi sessions court on Monday, after Rajbhar’s lawyer had earlier said in court that his statement had been forcibly taken. Rajbhar had said in the alleged confession that he had received Rs 1 lakh after the murder. In the statement, which was given under section 164 of the CrPC, Rajbhar narrated the whole murder conspiracy and said Chintan Upadhyay, Ms Upadhyay’s husband, had lured him with money to kill her, and that Chintan had made the call to invite Ms Upadhyay to main accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar’s warehouse.

A day after the murders of Ms Upadhyay, an artist, and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani, the main accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar, who is absconding at present, had paid Rs 2,000 to Rajbhar and Rs 1,000 to another accused, who is a minor, Rajbhar’s statement has revealed.

Earlier, on June 21, Rajbhar’s lawyer Anil Jaisingh Jadhav had claimed in court that his statement had been forcibly taken after he was threatened. Following this, Justice F.M. Khawaja of Dindoshi court had directed that his approval statement be produced in court.

The approval statement also revealed that on December 8, three days before the double murder, Vidhyadhar, along with tempo driver Vijay and Rajbhar, had a meeting with Chintan, who is also an accused in the case. In the meeting, Chintan told Vidhyadhar, “Tum Hema ka kaam kar doge to tumhe bees lakh dunga (I will pay you Rs 20 lakh if you will do the work involving Hema).” Following this, Vidhyadhar told him, “Kaam ho jayega (The job will be done).” During the meeting, Chintan told Rajbhar to call Ms Upadhyay posing as Mahendra Gupta, a cook at Chintan’s Jaipur house.

The approval statement says that, later, Vidhyadhar inserted Rajbhar’s SIM card into a phone and made a call to Ms Upadhyay. During this conversation, Rajbhar — who was on the phone posing as Mr Gupta — told Ms Upadhyay that he is in possession of a video clip that shows Chintan with another girl, and he could give it to Ms Upadhyay in return for Rs 2 lakh.

Ms Upadhyay told Rajbhar to call back and, in this second call, asked him where she is supposed to meet him to receive the clip, to which Rajbhar told her to come to Vidyadhar’s Bansraj art studio warehouse.

Later, on December 11, Ms Upadhyay, along with her lawyer, visited the warehouse, where Vidhyadhar was waiting ready with two handkerchiefs and a bottle. “Vidhyadhar poured something from the bottle on the handkerchief and kept one and gave one to Vijay,” reads the statement. “I caught hold of Hema madam and Vijay put a handkerchief on her nose, while Shiv Kumar and the accused minor caught hold of that man (Mr Bhambani) and Vidhyadhar placed a handkerchief on his nose,” reads the statement. Later, Rajbhar declared the two of them to be dead and Vidhyadhar stuck tapes on the bodies.

Vidhyadhar had had a scuffle with Bhambani in between and sustained an injury as well, and Ms Upadhyay had also woke up once after falling unconscious because of the liquid that she was forced to inhale.

On Monday, the Dindoshi sessions court directed the public prosecutor to give the approval statement to all the accused in the case. Later, the judge said the next date of hearing would be September 2.