Mumbai, Oct 10 : Eight years after the double murders of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani, a sessions court on Tuesday sentenced her estranged husband Chintan Upadhyay and three others to life imprisonment for hatching conspiracy to murder them.
The court also rejected prosecution plea to award death sentence to the convicts.
Additional Sessions Judge SY Bhosale at Dindoshi had convicted Upadhyay and Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradip Kumar Rajbhar, Vijay Kumar Rajbhar last week.
Earlier, Upadhyay has been convicted for abetment and conspiracy to murder.
Prosecution said that Hema and Bhambhani were allegedly smothered to death by Vijay Kumar Rajbhar on December 11, 2015, with the help of other accused persons. He had killed the duo allegedly at the behest of Hema’s estranged husband Chintan Upadhyay.
The next day, a garbage collector discovered their bodies stuffed in cardboard boxes in a nullah in Kandivali.
Upadhyay was arrested on December 22, 2015, for the murders. Other accused arrested are Shiv Kumar Rajbhar, Pradip Kumar Rajbhar, Vijay Kumar Rajbhar and a minor.
Upadhyay was granted bail by the Supreme Court on September 17, 2021.
