‘Confession’ untraceable in 2015 murders, judge couldn’t depose

Mumbai: A judge, who had recorded the now-retracted confessional statement of an accused in the 2015 double murder of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani when he was a magistrate, could not depose after the original statement was untraceable.

- Rebecca Samervel

After a 15-minute search in court during which the judge was present over videoconferencing, the statement remained untraceable. The prosecution sought time till Friday to produce the document, which was allowed by the sessions court.

On December 12, 2015, the bodies of Hema and Bhambani, stuffed in boxes, were recovered from a nullah in Kandivli. The trial in the double murder case had commenced August 2019.