In a new twist to the double murder&nbsp;case of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani,&nbsp;the role of a sixth suspect is being probed even as fresh&nbsp;leads suggest that the prime accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who is&nbsp;on run, is preparing himself to surrender before police, a&nbsp;senior officer said here today.
ALSO READ:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mid-day.com/articles/watch-video-accused-confesses-to-smothering-hema-harish/16773166" target="_blank">Watch Video: Accused confesses to smothering Hema, Harish</a>
Police have so far arrested Azad Rajhbhar, Pradeep&nbsp;Rajhbhar, Vijay Rajhbhar and Shivkumar Rajbhar alias 'Sadhu'&nbsp;in the case while Vidyadhar is absconding.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2015/dec/14-Hema-Upadhyay-1.jpg" alt="Hema Upadhyay" width="670" height="860" /> Hema Upadhyay
Meanwhile, Sadhu, formally placed under arrest today,&nbsp;was remanded in police custody till December 22 by a&nbsp;magistrate court here.
According to the officer attached to Crime Branch, the&nbsp;probable role of another person is coming to light in the&nbsp;crime. However, he refused to divulge details.
The officer said police had picked up Vidyadhar's&nbsp;trail and are tracking him by putting his mobile phone under&nbsp;surveillance.
The officer said that Vidyadhar, a resident of&nbsp;suburban Kandivli, told his neighbour that he had killed Hema&nbsp;and Bhambhani over some financial dispute as the artist had&nbsp;owed him Rs 5 lakh and he was in debt.
Vidyadhar has a art workshop cum warehouse in Kandivli&nbsp;where Hema and Bhambhani were allegedly killed before their&nbsp;bodies were stuffed in cardboard boxes and dumped into a drain&nbsp;in Kandivli. The bodies were found on Saturday.&nbsp;
"Vidyadhar was last tracked at Itarsi railway station&nbsp;in Madhya Pradesh on December 13 and his mobile phone has been&nbsp;switched off since then," the officer said.
"He (Vidyadhar) boarded a train from Dadar station&nbsp;here on the very night (Saturday) when bodies were recovered.&nbsp;Vidyadhar informed his neighbour (in Kandivli) that he had&nbsp;killed Hema and her lawyer and would surrender before police&nbsp;after returning to Mumbai," he said, adding that Vidyadhar&nbsp;owed some money to the neighbour who has approached police.&nbsp;
Explaining the sequence of events, the officer said&nbsp;Vidyadhar had called Hema to his workshop in Laljipada on&nbsp;Saturday afternoon under the pretext of sharing some evidence,&nbsp;apparently in connection with the marital discord case against&nbsp;her estranged husband Chintan Upadhyay.
He said Vidyadhar had incurred a huge loss in his&nbsp;glass fabrication business and was deep in debt.
"Hema and Bhambhani visited Vidhyadhar at his shop-cum-warehouse on Saturday around 8:30 PM. There the trio had a&nbsp;heated argument following which Vidayadhar, with the help of&nbsp;other accused, killed the artist and the lawyer," the officer&nbsp;said.
"Vidyadhar, along with other accused, had stuffed the&nbsp;bodies in two boxes," the officer added.
Vijay Rajbhar was the person who allegedly ferried the&nbsp;cardboxes containing the bodies of the deceased in a tempo&nbsp;from the warehouse of Vidyadhar in Kandivali (W).&nbsp;
The tempo driver had claimed that he was unaware of&nbsp;the contents inside the boxes.
The arrested accused were booked under IPC sections&nbsp;302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of&nbsp;offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and&nbsp;34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common&nbsp;intention).
Vijay, Pradeed and Azad were yesterday remanded in&nbsp;police custody till December 19.
Hema, a Baroda-born installation artist, was locked in&nbsp;bitter divorce proceedings with her husband Chintan, a&nbsp;contemporary artist.&nbsp;
She had in 2013 filed a case against him alleging&nbsp;that he painted obscene pictures of women on the walls of&nbsp;their matrimonial home in Mumbai to harass her. Bhambhani had&nbsp;represented Hema in this case.

In a new twist to the double murder&nbsp;case of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani,&nbsp;the role of a sixth suspect is being probed even as fresh&nbsp;leads suggest that the prime accused Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who is&nbsp;on run, is preparing himself to surrender before police

Hema Upadhyay murder: Cops suspect role of another man besides five accused

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Hema Upadhyay murder: Cops suspect role of another man besides five accused

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