The police said on Wednesday that the three accused — Vijaykumar, Pradeep and Azad Rajbhar — told them in their interrogation that the main accused, Vidyadhar Rajbhar, was trying to scare Hema Upadhyay by holding a chloroform-soaked cloth to her face when Harish Bhambhani attacked him.
The scuffle that followed led to her killing, after which they had no option but to kill Bhambhani as well.
Hema and Bhambhani’s bodies were found in a drain in Kandivali on Saturday evening, and the police went on to arrest Shivkumar Rajbhar in Uttar Pradesh, and Vijaykumar, Pradeep and Azad in Mumbai. Vidyadhar is still wanted in the case.
“The trio have said in their interrogation that after an argument broke out between Vidyadhar and Hema, he picked up a cloth and dipped it in a can of chloroform. He soaked the cloth in chloroform and held it over Hema’s face, at which point Bhambhani intervened. This resulted in Vidyadhar hitting Bhambhani. Shivkumar then helped overpower Bhambhani, by which time Hema had gone limp,” said an officer.
The officer said the accused then tied Bhambhani and wound duct tape over his mouth and eyes. When they realised that she was dead, they used the same chloroform-soaked cloth to kill Bhambhani, and then took help of the other three accused to dispose of the bodies.
