The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested three people in connection with the murder of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer. The men, who had been detained for questioning on Sunday, manufacture fibre glass, which Hema Upadhyay and her estranged husband Chintan used for their installations. A local court has remanded them in police custody till December 19, PTI reported.
The three men, Azad Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Vijay Rajbhar are among the five people police suspect were involved in the murders. One accused, Shivkumar alias Sadhu Rajbhar, was detained in Uttar Pradesh on Monday and is being taken to Mumbai.
The fifth, a key accused named Vidyadhar Rajbhar, is still at large. Sadhu had claimed that the murders were committed under Vidyadhar’s instructions. The police believe Vidyadhar’s arrest will help them determine whether the murder was the result of a financial dispute between them and Upadhyay, or whether it was a contract killing with an entirely different motive.
The two bodies were packed in cardboard boxes were found in a drain in Kandivali on Saturday.
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