Chintan Upadhyay, husband of deceased Mumbai artist Hema Upadhyay and three others have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the artist and her lawyer’s murder in 2015.
A sessions court in Mumbai last week on Thursday held Chintan Upadhyay guilty of conspiring to kill his estranged wife Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani, and abetting their murder.
Additional sessions judge SY Bhosale of the Dindoshi court heard the arguments on the quantum of sentence on Saturday.
Three other accused, namely, Vijay Rajbhar, Pradeep Rajbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar, were convicted of murder under Indian Penal Code section 302 and other relevant offences.
The prosecution had said it will seek the maximum punishment of death for all the convicts.
Upadhyay was held guilty under IPC sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) and 109 (abetment). Following the conviction, Chintan Upadhyay, who was out on bail, was sent in judicial custody till Saturday.
Special public prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade had told the media that he will be seeking capital punishment as one of the victims, Haresh Bhambhani, was a lawyer.
Hema Upadhyay and advocate 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 of executing the murders, has been absconding.
Chintan Upadhyay was arrested soon after the murders for allegedly conspiring to eliminate his wife. He spent nearly six years in jail before being granted bail by the Supreme Court in September 2021.
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