The tempo used to dispose off the bodies of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani in December 2015 was not produced before court for identification by a witness for the third consecutive time.
As it was not produced despite repeated adjournments for the purpose, the court on Tuesday directed the prosecution to produce the vehicle's photographs for the purpose of identification. It has also given the vehicle's custodian another chance of producing it.
Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade said that an apex court judgment allows photographs to be used for identification purposes in such cases. A photograph taken during returning the vehicle to the family is likely to be produced by the prosecution, he said.
The vehicle was to be produced before the court on November 6, by its custodian Ramadhar Rajbhar - father of Vijay Rajbhar, one of the accused in the case. The father had then told the court that a family member had sold it to someone and he is not aware of its whereabouts. The court had given him a week’s time to produce the vehicle before it or pay the indemnity bond of Rs. 5 lakhs as per conditions of a 2016 order by which it was given to him on his plea that the vehicle be given to the family as it is their sole source of income.
On November 12, the next date when it was to be produced, Ramadhar remained absent and did not produce the vehicle. The matter was adjourned for the vehicle’s production to November 24, when it was not produced again.
Hema Upadhyay’s estranged husband artist Chintan Upadhyay is an accused in the case among another four accused. The prime accused is absconding.
