Hema Upadhyay murder case: Court sets date to hear bail plea

Vijay Rajbhar — an accused in the Kandivali double murder of Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambhani — had filed for bail in the Dindoshi sessions court, and has been given the next date on Monday by Judge S.A. Quazi. Vijay, along with other accused in the case, is lodged in Thane prisons. The chargesheet against these accused was produced on March 11.

The bail application, filed by Vijay’s lawyer, said that Vijay took two boxes and threw them in the nullah in Kandivali and had no knowledge about what was contained in them. Later on December 18 last year, Vijay’s tempo was searched and only one piece of carton was recovered.

The application said that if Vijay had any knowledge about the contents of the carton, he would have cleaned his tempo.

The application also said that police visited Vijay’s residence during investigation but could not recover anything from his house, which proves that he had nothing to do with the murder.

Vijay’s tempo MH 04 FD 5102 was recovered from Link Road after Vijay directed police to it; Vijay used to drop goods from one shop to another in his tempo. The bail application raised a question about CCTV footage mentioned in the police charge sheet. According to the police charge sheet, police recovered footage in which Hema was seen with Haresh and other accused in Laljipada area of Kandivali near Vidhyadhar’s warehouse.

The bail application however said that “The camera footage is suspicious” as it shows Vidhyadhar, Vijay, Hema and Haresh twice in the area at two different times, which is practically not possible. The application also said that Vijay is the sole breadwinner in the family and has three children who are students.

The application informed that the Punchnama by the police showed Vidhyadhar had purchased the godown in August last year and during investigation, Vijay had showed the two boxes to cops in the godown however the statement to police was not admissible in court.