Slain artist’s kin livid at transfer of murder case

MUMBAI: Hema Hirani and her advocate Haresh Bhambani’s family and friends have said they would be forced to approach the Bombay high court if the

double murder

case of Hema and

Bhambani

is not transferred back to the Kandivli police. They alleged that key accused Chintan Upadhyay and his close friends are behind the

transfer

of the case. At a press conference, Hema’s and Bhambani’s families, accompanied by their lawyers, expressed shock over the Mumbai police commissioner’s one-line order to transfer the

case

from Kandivli police station to Ghatkopar crime branch. “The Kandivli police station was doing a fine job of collecting strong evidence against Chintan and that is the reason the court had also rejected his bail. We have gone through the chargesheet of investigating officer Sudhir Dalvi who had done a good job by linking all evidence. Neither Hema’s family nor Bhambani’s had sought transfer of the case. Why has police commissioner Datta Padsalgikar taken this step?” said advocate Kushal Mahatre. “We have written to the chief minister, Union home minister seeking the reason for transfer of the case. None of them have replied... We will file a writ petition before the Bombay high court, seeking directions to transfer the case to the CBI,” said advocate Vinod Ganwal. They alleged that the day may not be far when main accused Vidhyadhar Rajbhar surrenders and takes responsibility and Chintan walks out scot free. “Chintan feared that he may lose the legal fight with Hema and so hatched a conspiracy to kill my father and Hema,” said Bhambani’s daughter Anita.