A Dindoshi sessions court conducting the trial in the artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambani double-murder case has decided to record evidence against the prime accused in case Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who has been absconding since nearly five years.
On Friday, a plea was made before the court by Special Public Prosecutor Vaibhav Bagade seeking that the prosecution be allowed to record evidence against Vidyadhar Rajbhar. The plea was made under a provision of the criminal procedure code which deals with recording of evidence in the absence of accused persons. The depositions recorded under this are furnished to the absconding accused as and when they become available. They can be used in trial against the absconding accused if the witness is either dead, incapable of giving evidence or his or her attendance would cause unreasonable delay, expense of inconvenience.
Additional Sessions Judge SS Oza noted in his order that chargesheet is filed against Vidyadhar Rajbhar as an absconding accused and that he is absconding and there is no immediate prospect of arresting him. The court also recorded that the prosecution has undertaken to file a supplementary chargesheet against him and hence, evidence be recorded against him under Sec 299 of the CrPC.
On Friday, the father of a co-accused Vijay Rajbhar whom the court had given a last chance earlier this week to produce a tempo before it which had been used to dispose of bodies of the victims, appeared before the court and sought more time to produce it.
A witness connected with the recovery of the tempo had appeared before the court many times since last month to identify the tempo, but the father of Vijay Rajbhar was unable to produce it. He had told the court that a family member had sold it and he was not aware of its whereabouts.
Prosecutor Bagade, On Friday, also made a plea to keep this witness as part-heard and proceed to examine the next witness.
Hema Upadhyay’s estranged husband artist Chintan Upadhyay is an accused in the case among another four accused.
