The police on Friday recovered murdered lawyer Harish Bhambhani’s car from the same industrial compound where the tempo used to move his and Hema Upadhyay’s bodies was found.
The police said one of the accused Vijaykumar Rajbhar, who had earlier claimed he had unknowingly moved the bodies, has now confessed to playing a more proactive role in the crime.
Bodies of Hema and Bhambhani were found in a sewage drain in Kandivali on December 12. The police have arrested Vijaykumar, Azad, Pradeep and Shivkumar Rajbhar, while the alleged main accused, Vidyadhar Rajbhar, is still at large.
The police said Vijaykumar, whose tempo was used to dispose of the bodies, had earlier claimed in his statement to the police that he had only transported two packages at the behest of the other accused without knowing that they contained dead bodies. However, on sustained interrogation, he confessed to have played a more proactive role in the attempted cover up.
“After Hema and Bhambhani were killed, the accused packed both the bodies in cardboard boxes used for packaging sculptures and wrapped them in plastic sheets,” said a police officer. “They then had a discussion on what to do with Bhambhani’s car, as its presence near the workshop could have alerted the police. Vijaykumar told them that he knew a place where a vehicle could stand undisturbed for a long time.”
Having driven a tempo in the northern suburbs for several years, Vijaykuamar was familiar with a lot places where a vehicle could be abandoned. He allegedly took Bhambhani’s car to the Charkop Industrial Estate and parked it in a corner at the far end of the compound.
“Vijaykumar also offered to carry the bodies in his tempo, saying that two wrapped packages in a tempo would be the least suspicious sight even if he was stopped in a routine nakabandi,” the officer said.
“The accused made a couple of rounds of the area where the drain is located to make sure there were no eye witnesses around before throwing them into the drain. Vijaykumar then took the tempo to the same industrial estate and parked it in the same compound but at a different spot,” the officer added.
