--- title: Hema Upadhyay Murder: Man Confesses to Killing Mumbai Artist description: The 42-year-old artist and her lawyer were found dead on Sunday canonical: https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-15T06:11:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:22:16.272Z article:section: World og:title: Man Confesses to Killing Prominent Indian Artist og:description: Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer were found dead in Mumbai on Sunday. og:url: https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt817c7b34dc1235e1/6988754e428a9e685fcd0901/gettyimages-88948983.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hema Upadhyay, Artist at her Studio in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ( for IT Woman Magazine ) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Confesses to Killing Prominent Indian Artist twitter:description: Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer were found dead in Mumbai on Sunday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt817c7b34dc1235e1/6988754e428a9e685fcd0901/gettyimages-88948983.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Man Has Confessed to the Double Murder of a Well-Known Indian Artist and Her Lawyer by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Dec 15, 2015 6:11 AM CUT  Indian artist Hema Upadhyay at her studio in Mumbai Indian artist Hema Upadhyay at her studio in MumbaiMandar Deodhar—The India Today Group/Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Dec 15, 2015 6:11 AM CUT A man in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh reportedly [confessed](http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-double-murder-mumbai-police-team-on-suspects-trail-in-up/ "undefined") Tuesday to the gruesome double murder of a prominent artist and her attorney, telling police he did it on the orders of his employer. Shivkumar Rajbhar said he killed Hema Upadhyay and lawyer Harish Bhambhani, with the aid of four accomplices, after Upadhyay failed to pay for a metal statue made for her, the _Indian Express_ newspaper reported. The statue was created by Rajbhar’s boss Vidyadhar, a metalworker and artist who has since gone missing. Three others, as well as a lorry driver who helped dispose of the bodies, have been arrested. Police are also investigating Upadhyay’s ex-husband, Chintan Upadhyay, who reportedly made several calls to Vidyadhar a fortnight ago and had worked with him closely. The bodies of Upadhyay and Bhambhani — who had represented her in a 2013 harassment case against her ex-husband — were found in a drain in Mumbai over the weekend, and an [autopsy](http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/mumbai-double-murder-hema-was-hit-on-the-face-bhambhani-on-chest-reveals-autopsy/ "undefined") revealed that they had both been bludgeoned with blunt objects. Upadhyay, 42, was a prominent face in Mumbai’s art scene and was [described](http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/mumbai-artist-lawyer-found-dead-a-bold-artist-who-stood-out-among-veterans/ "undefined") by those who knew her as a “bold and experimental” artist with a “real, warm and cheerful” personality. \[[_Indian Express_](http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-double-murder-mumbai-police-team-on-suspects-trail-in-up/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/"},"headline":"A Man Has Confessed to the Double Murder of a Well-Known Indian Artist and Her Lawyer","datePublished":"2015-12-15T06:11:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:22:16.272Z","description":"The bodies of the victims were found in a drain in Mumbai","url":"https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/","keywords":["Murder","Crime","India","confession","artist"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt817c7b34dc1235e1/6988754e428a9e685fcd0901/gettyimages-88948983.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt817c7b34dc1235e1/6988754e428a9e685fcd0901/gettyimages-88948983.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hema Upadhyay, Artist at her Studio in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ( for IT Woman Magazine )","caption":"Hema Upadhyay, Artist at her Studio in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ( for IT Woman Magazine )","creditText":"Mandar Deodhar—The India Today Group/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4148865/hema-upadhyay-harish-bhambhani-confession-murder-mumbai/","name":"A Man Has Confessed to the Double Murder of a Well-Known Indian Artist and Her Lawyer"}}]}] ```